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Pierre-Simon Laplace
(23 Mar 1749 - 5 Mar 1827)
French mathematician, physicist, statistician and astronomer , known for his exact approach to science, who developed mathematical probability theory and suggested the name 'meter' as the metric unit measurement.
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Pierre-Simon Laplace Quotes on Biography (4 quotes)
>> Click for 35 Science Quotes by Pierre-Simon Laplace
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>> Click for 35 Science Quotes by Pierre-Simon Laplace
>> Click for Pierre-Simon Laplace Quotes on | Analysis | Cause | Chance | Ignorance | Knowledge | Law | Mathematics | Nature | Observation | Phenomenon | Probability | Theory |
Ce que nous connaissons est peu de chose; ce que nous ignorons est immense.
What we know is not much. What we do not know is immense.
Commonly said to be his last words. However, different true last words are stated by Augustus De Morgan.
What we know is not much. What we do not know is immense.
Commonly said to be his last words. However, different true last words are stated by Augustus De Morgan.
— Pierre-Simon Laplace
Quoted in Augustus De Morgan, Budget of Paradoxes (1915), Vol. 2, 3.
L’homme ne poursuit que des chimères.
Man follows only phantoms.
Man follows only phantoms.
— Pierre-Simon Laplace
His true last words, according to De Morgan. As quoted in Augustus De Morgan, Budget of Paradoxes (1915), Vol. 2, 3.
Lisez Euler, lisez Euler, c’est notre maître à tous.
(Read Euler, read Euler, he is our master in everything.)
(Read Euler, read Euler, he is our master in everything.)
— Pierre-Simon Laplace
Quoted in Petr Beckmann, A History of Pi, 157.
Napoleon: M. Laplace, they tell me you have written this large book [Système du Monde] on the system of the universe, and have never even mentioned its Creator.
Laplace: I have no need for this hypothesis. (Je n’avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là.)
Laplace: I have no need for this hypothesis. (Je n’avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là.)
— Pierre-Simon Laplace
Quoted in Augustus De Morgan, Budget of Paradoxes (1915), Vol. 2, 2-3.
See also:
- 23 Mar - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Laplace's birth.
- Pierre-Simon Laplace, 1749-1827, by Charles Coulston Gillispie. - book suggestion.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
