Natble Quotes (1)
Thus the system of the world only oscillates around a mean state from which it never departs except by a very small quantity. By virtue of its constitution and the law of gravity, it enjoys a stability that can be destroyed only by foreign causes, and we are certain that their action is undetectable from the time of the most ancient observations until our own day. This stability in the system of the world, which assures its duration, is one of the most notable among all phenomena, in that it exhibits in the heavens the same intention to maintain order in the universe that nature has so admirably observed on earth for the sake of preserving individuals and perpetuating species.
'Sur l'Équation Séculaire de la Lune' (1786, published 1788). In Oeuvres complètes de Laplace, 14 Vols. (1843-1912), Vol. 11, 248-9, trans. Charles Coulston Gillispie, Pierre-Simon Laplace 1749-1827: A Life in Exact Science (1997), 145.
See also: | Action (16) | Ancient (2) | Cause (49) | Certainty (24) | Constitution of the United States (7) | Destroy (7) | Foreign (2) | Gravity (34) | Heaven (18) | Individual (10) | Intention (4) | Law (134) | Maintain (2) | Mean (2) | Nature (243) | Observation (142) | Order (21) | Oscillation (2) | Phenomenon (25) | Preservation (3) | Species (49) | Stability (3) | State (5) | System (15) | Time (55) | Undetectable (2) | Universe (138) | World (45)
