NEWTON
“Newton was the greatest genius that ever existed.”—Lagrange, one of the greatest of French mathematicians.
“The efforts of the great philosopher were always superhuman; the questions which he did not solve were incapable of solution in his time.”—Arago, famous French astronomer.
EINSTEIN
“This is the most important result obtained in connection with the theory of gravitation since Newton’s day. Einstein’s reasoning is the result of one of the highest achievements of human thought.”—Sir J. J. Thomson, president of the British Royal Society and professor of physics at the University of Cambridge.
“It surpasses in boldness everything previously suggested in speculative natural philosophy and even in the philosophical theories of knowledge. The revolution introduced into the physical conceptions of the world is only to be compared in extent and depth with that brought about by the introduction of the Copernican system of the universe.”—Prof. Max Planck, professor of physics at the University of Berlin and winner of the Nobel Prize.
I
NEWTON
In speaking of Newton we are tempted to paraphrase a line from the Scriptures: Before Newton the Solar System was without form, and void; then Newton came and there was light. To have discovered a law not only applicable to matter on this earth, but to the planets and sun and stars beyond, is a triumph which places Newton among the super-men.