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 seashore, 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, From Brewster, Memoirs of Newton (1855)
English mathematician & physicist (1642 - 1727)
I have always enjoyed spouting this quote to family and friends, but have been haunted by the exact meaning. Is Newton lamenting that his studies in astronomy, light and mathematics kept him from studying (fully) alchemy? Or, rather that he did not see his accomplishments in the same light as we?
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