We ought to regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its antecedent state and as the cause of the state that is to follow. An intelligence knowing all the forces acting in nature at a given instant, as well as the momentary positions of all things in the universe, would be able to comprehend in one single formula the motions of the largest bodies as well as the lightest atoms in the world, provided that its intellect were sufficiently powerful to subject all data to analysis; to it nothing would be uncertain, the future as well as the past would be present to its eyes. The perfection that the human mind has been able to give to astronomy affords but a feeble outline of such an intelligence. PierreSimon Laplace
About This Quote

Sir Isaac Newton put forward this idea of an all-knowing, all-powerful God that can see into the future. It seems very close to what we strive for in understanding how the universe works.

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More Quotes By PierreSimon Laplace
  1. Your Excellency, I have no need of this hypothesis.

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  3. Probability theory is nothing more than common sense reduced to calculation. -1819

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