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John Arbuthnot
(Apr 1667 - 27 Feb 1735)
Scottish mathematician,
physician and satirist who introduced the subject of probability to
English mathematicians. As a satirist, he created the John Bull
character iconic of an Englishman.
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“The mathematics are friends to
religion, inasmuch as they charm the passions, restrain the impetuosity
of the imagination, and purge the mind of error and prejudice.”
— John Arbuthnot
from On the Usefulness
of Mathematical Learning
“Mathematical knowledge adds a
manly vigour to the mind, frees it from prejudice, credulity, and
superstition.”
— John Arbuthnot
from On the Usefulness
of Mathematical Learning
“It is impossible for a Die, with
such determin'd force and direction, not to fall on such determin'd
side, only I don't know the force and direction which makes it fall on
such determin'd side, and therefore I call it Chance, which is nothing
but the want of art.... .”
— John Arbuthnot
from preface of Of the
Laws of Chance (1692)
“The Reader may here observe the
Force of Numbers, which can be successfully applied, even to those
things, which one would imagine are subject to no Rules. There are very
few things which we know, which are not capable of being reduc'd to a
Mathematical Reasoning; and when they cannot it's a sign our knowledge
of them is very small and confus'd; and when a Mathematical Reasoning
can be had it's as great a folly to make use of any other, as to grope
for a thing in the dark, when you have a Candle standing by you.”
— John Arbuthnot
from Of the Laws of
Chance (1692)
“The first Care in building of
Cities, is to make them airy and well perflated; infectious Distempers
must necessarily be propagated amongst Mankind living close together..”
— John Arbuthnot
from An Essay
Concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies
“John looked ruddy and plump, with
a pair of cheeks like a trumpeter.”
— John Arbuthnot
describing John Bull
in The History of John Bull
in The History of John Bull
“All political parties die at last
of swallowing their own lies.”
— John Arbuthnot
in Richard Garnett,
Life of Emerson, Chap 7 (1887)
“Law is a Bottomless-Pit, it is a
Cormorant, a Harpy, that devours every thing.”
— John Arbuthnot
from The History of
John Bull
“If the world had but a dozen
Arbuthnots I would burn my Travels.”
— Jonathan Swift
written in Sep 1725, when Arbuthnot was seriously ill
“...a man estimable for his
learning, amiable for his life, and venerable for his piety. Arbuthnot
was a man of great comprehension, skilful in his profession, versed in
the sciences, acquainted with ancient literature, and able to animate
his mass of knowledge by a bright and active imagination; a scholar
with great brilliance of wit; a wit who, in the crowd of life, retained
and discovered a noble ardour of religious zeal.”
— Samuel Johnson
from Pope (Lives of the
Poets)
“Biography is one of the new
terrors of death.”
— John Arbuthnot
