“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself …”

“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”

— Isaac Newton

Verification

Attributed

Recorded by a reliable secondary source; exact wording may differ.

Imported from Wikiquote; not yet checked by QuoteQuest against the original source.

Source

Title: Wikiquote: Isaac Newton
Type: reference · Secondary source
Held by: Wikiquote

View source at Wikiquote

Context

Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton (1855) by Sir David Brewster (Volume II. Ch. 27). Compare: "As children gath'ring pebbles on the shore", John Milton, Paradise Regained, Book iv. Line 330

Cite this source

Newton, Isaac. (n.d.). Wikiquote: Isaac Newton. Wikiquote. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton

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Provenance: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA)