Pierre-Simon Laplace

Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749–1827), French mathematician and astronomer , discoverer of the Laplace transform and Laplace's equation .

Quotes

• "Je n'ai pas besoin de cette hypothèse."
  • Translation: "I have no need of that hypothesis."
  • Reputed reply to Emperor Napoleon I, who had asked why he hadn't mentioned God in his discourse on secular variations of the orbits of Saturn and Jupiter.

• "Probability theory is nothing but common sense reduced to calculation."
  • from Théorie Analytique des Probabilités (1812)

• "What we know is not much. What we do not know is immense."
• "Read Euler: he is our master in everything."

See also

• List of mathematicians
• Mathematicians