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Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton
This richly detailed 1981 biography captures both the personal life and the scientific career of Isaac Newton, presenting a fully rounded picture of Newton the man, the scientist, the philosopher, the theologian, and the public figure. Professor Westfall treats all aspects of Newton's career, but his account centres on a full description of Newton's achievements in science. Thus the core of the work describes the development of the calculus, the experimentation that altered the direction of the science of optics, and especially the investigations in celestial dynamics that led to the law of universal gravitation.
928 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
About the author
Richard S. Westfall
16 books17 followersRichard S. Westfall was an American academic, biographer and historian of science. He is best known for his biography of Isaac Newton and his work on the scientific revolution of the 17th century.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
September 18, 2012
This is the most comprehensive book on any topic I have read in a long time. I wanted to know about Newton and boy do I ever now! The problem is that it is so extensive - exhaustive really. While the book does a great job detailing Sir Isaac Newton's life, the level of detail is beyond what most readers would care for.
In addition to detailing his accomplishments, setbacks, breakdowns and personality, Richard S. Westfall has gone to great lengths to talk about things like his fincances. For example, early in the book, in an attempt to illustrate that Newton's family was well off, the author spends a few pages detailing the incomes and holdings of many other people in the country at the time.
This level of detail may be welcomed by some readers, especially when devoted to such central matters as Newton's accomplishments in math and science. For most readers however, this level of detail is unecessary and unwelcome. I found myself skipping large protions of the book either because I didn't care (finances) or didn't know enough to understand it (the large portions of the book detailing his mathematical accomplishments).
There is another version of the book which is probably ideal for those of us who don't care about all of that extra stuff. The Life of Isaac Newton though it has a different title, is an abridged version of Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton and I kind of wish I had read that instead.
My final rating of three stars reflects my enjoyment of reading this book, not it's quality as a scholarly text. It is a fantastic resource on Newton and for those especially well versed in physics and math, it is probably a must read. For the rest of us, my recommendation is to try The Life of Isaac Newton instead.
In addition to detailing his accomplishments, setbacks, breakdowns and personality, Richard S. Westfall has gone to great lengths to talk about things like his fincances. For example, early in the book, in an attempt to illustrate that Newton's family was well off, the author spends a few pages detailing the incomes and holdings of many other people in the country at the time.
This level of detail may be welcomed by some readers, especially when devoted to such central matters as Newton's accomplishments in math and science. For most readers however, this level of detail is unecessary and unwelcome. I found myself skipping large protions of the book either because I didn't care (finances) or didn't know enough to understand it (the large portions of the book detailing his mathematical accomplishments).
There is another version of the book which is probably ideal for those of us who don't care about all of that extra stuff. The Life of Isaac Newton though it has a different title, is an abridged version of Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton and I kind of wish I had read that instead.
My final rating of three stars reflects my enjoyment of reading this book, not it's quality as a scholarly text. It is a fantastic resource on Newton and for those especially well versed in physics and math, it is probably a must read. For the rest of us, my recommendation is to try The Life of Isaac Newton instead.
July 30, 2022
5 stars - English Ebook
This richly detailed 1981 biography captures both the personal life and the scientific career of Isaac Newton, presenting a fully rounded picture of Newton the man, the scientist, the philosopher, the theologian, and the public figure.
Professor Westfall treats all aspects of Newton's career, but his account centres on a full description of Newton's achievements in science.
Thus the core of the work describes the development of the calculus, the experimentation that altered the direction of the science of optics, and especially the investigations in celestial dynamics that led to the law of universal gravitation.
Great book. I have wanted to read it for ages. It's exhaustive and the best bio of Newton i have read, so complete and full of detail. Recommended if you are interested in Science History or the Restoration period.
This richly detailed 1981 biography captures both the personal life and the scientific career of Isaac Newton, presenting a fully rounded picture of Newton the man, the scientist, the philosopher, the theologian, and the public figure.
Professor Westfall treats all aspects of Newton's career, but his account centres on a full description of Newton's achievements in science.
Thus the core of the work describes the development of the calculus, the experimentation that altered the direction of the science of optics, and especially the investigations in celestial dynamics that led to the law of universal gravitation.
Great book. I have wanted to read it for ages. It's exhaustive and the best bio of Newton i have read, so complete and full of detail. Recommended if you are interested in Science History or the Restoration period.
January 17, 2016
As a fashion designer who needs a calculator to complete even the most basic calculations and as a mediocre at best science student (okay I was horrible). The motivation to read Never at Rest, comes from my absolute admiration of Newton as a scientist and my interest to learn more about how genius works.
As with most lives how much can we really know about another person. I know more about Newton, much more but not all of it is welcome news. I was saddened to learn that during Newton's administration as president the first person to be denied election since the founding of the Royal Society , was a "Black Native of Jamaica" named Mr. Williams.
Other revelations include a dismantling of the modern reverent mythology of institutions such as the Royal Society and universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. The reality is much messier and this book puts them into a clear historic, political, social and cultural light. As Mr Westfall explains their impact on Newton's career.
The twists and turns of his life and the dramas that ensued and in many cases he inflamed makes him all the more human. And in some ways that makes him both more interesting and in some ways less likable. But In the end my respect for Newton as a scientist and one of the most important geniuses to ever live remains.
As with most lives how much can we really know about another person. I know more about Newton, much more but not all of it is welcome news. I was saddened to learn that during Newton's administration as president the first person to be denied election since the founding of the Royal Society , was a "Black Native of Jamaica" named Mr. Williams.
Other revelations include a dismantling of the modern reverent mythology of institutions such as the Royal Society and universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. The reality is much messier and this book puts them into a clear historic, political, social and cultural light. As Mr Westfall explains their impact on Newton's career.
The twists and turns of his life and the dramas that ensued and in many cases he inflamed makes him all the more human. And in some ways that makes him both more interesting and in some ways less likable. But In the end my respect for Newton as a scientist and one of the most important geniuses to ever live remains.
December 26, 2018
The one biography you should read if you are really interested in the life and career of Isaac Newton, which is much longer and weirder than you might think, with much the latter part spent pursuing and punishing counterfeiters, which seems to have some psychological resonance.
If you are only casually interested, and want a breezy overview, this is definitely not it. Something like the Gleick might be better, though still not super short. You'll learn about Newton's background, his schooling, his researches, his relationships, and his career in great detail. I was never bored, and actually have this book on my list to reread, because of its calm reliability and willingness to take its time, without padding or wandering off the topic, and its deep dive into the scientific culture of the late seventeenth century and early eighteenth century that so thoroughly transformed our intellectual world.
If you are only casually interested, and want a breezy overview, this is definitely not it. Something like the Gleick might be better, though still not super short. You'll learn about Newton's background, his schooling, his researches, his relationships, and his career in great detail. I was never bored, and actually have this book on my list to reread, because of its calm reliability and willingness to take its time, without padding or wandering off the topic, and its deep dive into the scientific culture of the late seventeenth century and early eighteenth century that so thoroughly transformed our intellectual world.
Want to read
July 25, 2016-> 1000 pages.
-> Written in 1981.
Still interested.
Me: almost 26 and has 4 useless diplomas yolo
-> Written in 1981.
Still interested.
June 13, 2020
This extensive biography goes into more depth than most of us care for, but it is through. The evidences are described as is their provenance. I skipped over many of the details as I read. I didn’t feel a need to know every twist and turn of the genesis of an idea.
His earlier life was with few friends. His middle life with little desire to associate with others; rather he worked with ideas. After he left Cambridge for London, I might say he became a political creature; turning on perceived enemies even though they might have been associates that he worked with. His capacity for spite was as great as his reputation. But then, perhaps that is true of most of us.
Most striking to me was that he was deeply religious but thoroughly hid his religious views because they revealed the corruption of the church from it’s original foundation.
Richard S Westfall has written half a dozen books with Newton in the title, and several others that look like the same time period, so Newton is probably included inside some of those books also.
“As we shall see, Newton was a tortured man, an extremely neurotic personality who teetered always, at least through middle age, on the verge of breakdown.” (Page 53)
“He was different from other boys ... As they came to recognize his intellectual superiority, the boys in the school apparently hated him.” (Page 58)
“In roughly a year, without benefit of instruction, he mastered the entire achievement of seventeenth-century analysis and began to break new ground.” (Page 100)
“Thus he computed sines to fifteen places and found devices by which he could compute roots and the value of pi to fifteen places or to fifty or five hundred if he wished.” (Page 112)
October 1666 “As it happened only one other mathematician in Europe, Isaac Barlow even knew that Newton existed, and it is unlikely that in 1666 Barlow had any inkling of his accomplishment. The fact that he was unknown does not alter the other fact that the young man not yet 24, without benefit of formal instruction, had become the leading mathematician of Europe.“
Hebrews 1:8-9 Newton inserted the comment next to the words thy God: “therefore the father is God of the son [when the son is considered] as God.” (Page 311)
“The conviction begin to possess him that a massive fraud, which began in the fourth and fifth centuries, had perverted the legacy of the early church. Central to the fraud were the Scriptures, which Newton begin to believe had been corrupted to support trinitarianism.“ (Page 313)
“The corruption of Scripture came relatively late. The earlier corruption of doctrine, which called for the corruption of scripture to support it, occurred in the fourth century, when the triumph of Athanasius over Arius imposed a false doctrine of the Trinity on Christianity.“ (Page 314)
“ There is no book in all the Scriptures so much recommended and guarded by Providence as this [the book of Revelation].“ (Page 319)
“More significant was the implicit de emphasis of the role of Christ, a step which came readily enough to an Arian.” (Page 355) (Chapter: Years of Silence)
“[John] Locke later [said] that he knew few who were Newton’s equal in knowledge of the Bible.” (Page 489)
“... two letters addressed to Locke ... [on] corruptions of Scripture ... were the prime trinitarian passages in the Bible, 1 John 5:7, and 1 Timothy 3:16. Newton also composed a third letter about some twenty-six additional passages, all lending support to trinitarianism, that were corruptions too;” (Page 489-490)
“This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comments, could only proceed from the council and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being… This being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as lord over off; and on account of his dominion he is want to be called Lord God, call, παντοκρατρωρ or universal ruler for God is a relative word, and has a respect to servants; and Deity is the dominion of God not over his own body, as those imagine who fancy God to be the soul of the world, but over servants. (Page 748)
“The true manhood of Christ was important to Newton, who believed that trinitarianism effectively denied his manhood and with it the reality of his suffering on the cross. However, ‘he was not an ordinary man but incarnate by the almighty power of God & born of a Virgin without any other father than God himself.’” (Page 824)
His earlier life was with few friends. His middle life with little desire to associate with others; rather he worked with ideas. After he left Cambridge for London, I might say he became a political creature; turning on perceived enemies even though they might have been associates that he worked with. His capacity for spite was as great as his reputation. But then, perhaps that is true of most of us.
Most striking to me was that he was deeply religious but thoroughly hid his religious views because they revealed the corruption of the church from it’s original foundation.
Richard S Westfall has written half a dozen books with Newton in the title, and several others that look like the same time period, so Newton is probably included inside some of those books also.
“As we shall see, Newton was a tortured man, an extremely neurotic personality who teetered always, at least through middle age, on the verge of breakdown.” (Page 53)
“He was different from other boys ... As they came to recognize his intellectual superiority, the boys in the school apparently hated him.” (Page 58)
“In roughly a year, without benefit of instruction, he mastered the entire achievement of seventeenth-century analysis and began to break new ground.” (Page 100)
“Thus he computed sines to fifteen places and found devices by which he could compute roots and the value of pi to fifteen places or to fifty or five hundred if he wished.” (Page 112)
October 1666 “As it happened only one other mathematician in Europe, Isaac Barlow even knew that Newton existed, and it is unlikely that in 1666 Barlow had any inkling of his accomplishment. The fact that he was unknown does not alter the other fact that the young man not yet 24, without benefit of formal instruction, had become the leading mathematician of Europe.“
Hebrews 1:8-9 Newton inserted the comment next to the words thy God: “therefore the father is God of the son [when the son is considered] as God.” (Page 311)
“The conviction begin to possess him that a massive fraud, which began in the fourth and fifth centuries, had perverted the legacy of the early church. Central to the fraud were the Scriptures, which Newton begin to believe had been corrupted to support trinitarianism.“ (Page 313)
“The corruption of Scripture came relatively late. The earlier corruption of doctrine, which called for the corruption of scripture to support it, occurred in the fourth century, when the triumph of Athanasius over Arius imposed a false doctrine of the Trinity on Christianity.“ (Page 314)
“ There is no book in all the Scriptures so much recommended and guarded by Providence as this [the book of Revelation].“ (Page 319)
“More significant was the implicit de emphasis of the role of Christ, a step which came readily enough to an Arian.” (Page 355) (Chapter: Years of Silence)
“[John] Locke later [said] that he knew few who were Newton’s equal in knowledge of the Bible.” (Page 489)
“... two letters addressed to Locke ... [on] corruptions of Scripture ... were the prime trinitarian passages in the Bible, 1 John 5:7, and 1 Timothy 3:16. Newton also composed a third letter about some twenty-six additional passages, all lending support to trinitarianism, that were corruptions too;” (Page 489-490)
“This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comments, could only proceed from the council and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being… This being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as lord over off; and on account of his dominion he is want to be called Lord God, call, παντοκρατρωρ or universal ruler for God is a relative word, and has a respect to servants; and Deity is the dominion of God not over his own body, as those imagine who fancy God to be the soul of the world, but over servants. (Page 748)
“The true manhood of Christ was important to Newton, who believed that trinitarianism effectively denied his manhood and with it the reality of his suffering on the cross. However, ‘he was not an ordinary man but incarnate by the almighty power of God & born of a Virgin without any other father than God himself.’” (Page 824)
April 26, 2024
Recommended for anyone interested in science, but this is a book that could have benefitted from a stricter editor. I guess the current tendency in biography is to reveal every wart and flaw. I don't have to see every wart and flaw. Newton had the greatest scientific mind in the history of our species, and that's why I picked up the book. The rest is superfluous.
August 21, 2022
Book: Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton
Author: Richard S. Westfall
Publisher: Cambridge University Press; Revised ed. edition (29 April 1983)
Language: English
Paperback: 928 pages
Item Weight: 1 kg 240 g
Dimensions: 15.6 x 4.65 x 23.39 cm
Country of Origin: USA
Price: 3349/-
‘Born in 1564, Galileo had lived nearly to eighty. Newton would live nearly to eighty-five. Between them they virtually spanned the entire scientific revolution, the central core of which their combined work constituted. In fact, only England's stiff-necked Protestantism permitted the chronological liaison. Because it considered that popery had fatally contaminated the Gregorian calendar, England was ten days out of phase with the Continent, where it was 4 January 1643 the day Newton was born. We can sacrifice the symbol without losing anything of substance. It matters only that he was born and at such a time that he could utilize Galileo's work…’
This 900 plus page tome has been divided into fifteen chapters:
1 - The discovery ef a new world
2 - A sober, silent, thinking lad
3 - The solitary scholar
4 - Resolving problems by motion
5 - Anni mirabiles
6 - Lucasian professor
7 - Publication and crisis
8 - Rebellion
9 - Years of silence
10 - Principia
11 - Revolution
12 - The Mint
13 - President of the Royal Society
14 - The priority dispute
15 - Years of decline
A list of the most dominant people of all time wouldn’t be inclusive without Sir Isaac Newton. Newton's laws are coupled to almost all that we perceive in everyday life. They help us comprehend how cars work, how satellites move, how anything moves.
Yet there were several secret facets to the 17th century scientist which becomes clear by the end of this book. The third chapter of this book calls him, ‘The solitary scholar’
By his mid-20s, Newton had already invented calculus. Not bad for the son of an uneducated cultivator.
He would never meet his father who died three months before his birth on Christmas day 1642 in the petite English village of Woolsthorpe Manor in the county of Lincolnshire.
He was a premature baby and so small he was later told, he could fit inside a quart mug. He only just survived. When Newton was three, his mother remarried and moved to a close by village to live with a well-off clergyman.
Newton was left behind in the care of his grandparents.
That desertion profoundly blemished him. Years later, he wrote a list of his sins, recalling a flare-up from infancy: "Threatening my father and mother Smith to burn them and the house over them."
He was an inquisitive child - more interested in mechanics than making friends.
He carved a sundial as a nine-year-old. When he was 12, he enrolled at a local grammar school. His signature can still be seen by a windowsill of the King's School today.
After the death of his stepfather, his mother tried to remove him from school so he could be a farmer - a vision that he dreaded. Providentially, the schoolmaster convinced his mother to send him back to class where he gained the knowledge essential to enter the University of Cambridge in 1661, paying his way by working as a valet.
Although he studied the works of the ancient Greek philosophers, he questioned their theories writing in his notebook in Latin, "Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my best friend is truth."
He vowed to find the truth through thorough scientific testing.
His time as an undergraduate was average but the unexpected events that happened next would set the theater for his greatest achievements.
Shortly after receiving his Bachelor's degree in 1665, the bubonic plague ravaged Europe and would take the lives of an estimated one out of every four people in London. The pandemic forced Newton to work from his childhood home for the next two years and would lead to his most miraculous advances.
He used a prism to discover that white light and sunlight is made up of the colors of the rainbow. The extensively held conviction at the time was Aristotle's theory that colour was a jumble of black and white. To prove his hypothesis, Newton built a reflecting telescope that used mirrors rather than lenses - leading to a more precise image.
That's a whole lot safer than the time he stuck a sewing needle into his eye socket to figure out if altering his eye outline would change his understanding of colour.
Outside the family home was also an apple tree -- the celebrated apple tree. Legend has it that Newton was sitting underneath a tree when an apple bonked him on the head, prompting him to think about gravity - the force that brings things down.
There's no proof to suggest the fruit really fell on his head but he did ask the question that helped unchain our understanding of the universe: Could the same force reach all the way to the moon?
He reasoned that the same gravitational pull kept the moon orbiting around Earth rather than wandering off and he believed this could also clarify the movement of our planets in the solar system. The mathematics at the time wasn't sophisticated enough to conclude the motion of these objects so Newton invented his own form of math calculus.
There was a dispute over who actually invented calculus. When German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz published his paper on calculus in 1684, Newton claimed he’d done the same work 20 years prior.
The thing is, Newton was so enigmatic and guarded that he hadn't in point of fact made his efforts public for the reason that he couldn't stand the inspection of his work. When Leibniz appealed to the Royal Society in London, Newton wielded his influence as the scientific academy's president to get it to side with him. Most historians agree that the two discovered calculus separately. In 1667, after the end of the plague, he returned to the University to carry on his research as a fellow.
He was a workaholic. Sometimes, he'd forget to eat.
Just two years later while still in his mid-twenties, he obtained one of the most prestigious academic posts in the world, the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics’, later held by none other then Stephen Hawking.
Yet he was indifferent to his students. One time, when no one showed up for class, he is said to have lectured to an empty room. His true passion lay in research. In 1687, he published his masterpiece: the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy - often referred to simply as Principia - one of the most important works ever penned. It was here that he laid out his law of universal gravitation as well as his three laws of motion.
Newton may be considered one of the greatest scientists the world has ever known. Yet he in fact contributed more words to theology. Newton believed the Bible provided the convention to the natural world and by carefully studying the Holy texts, he could predict the future. He believed the apocalypse would happen in the year 2060 with the caveat: "It may end later but I see no reason for its ending sooner."
He foresaw a period marked by war and catastrophe followed by the second coming of Christ and the beginning of a new, divine era. His religious side was largely hidden from the public all the way until 1936, when Sotheby's auctioned off his theological manuscripts. They ended up in the hands of a Jewish scholar before being given to the state of Israel.
In 7,500 pages in Newton’s own handwriting, he did hold unconventional views of Christianity by rejecting the Trinity - the conviction in the father, son, and the Holy Spirit. And he also fought against the effort by King James II to catholicize the universities, which got him elected as a Member of Parliament, where he served two concise terms.
Rumour has it that, the only thing he said on the record was to appeal that a window be closed.
Newton also had another unidentified side to him. He spent 25 years clandestinely studying alchemy - the search for a method to twist common metals into gold. This is a manuscript where Newton wrote down a recipe thought to be a step toward concocting the fabled Philosopher's Stone now popularized in the Harry Potter series. Alchemists believed it could even help humans achieve immortality.
Unfortunately, Newton may have gotten mercury poisoning from all the time spent in the laboratory. Examinations of his hair after his death found high levels of the toxic compound which scholars believe could explain his mental breakdown in 1693 when he lost grip on reality.
He wrote letters accusing the few friends he had of conspiring against him. He suffered from insomnia and oppression. The personal crisis lasted a year and a half.
Not too long after he ended his 30-year career at Cambridge. In 1696, he moved to London to help run the Royal Mint. Britain's finances were in ruins because of the rampant practice of clipping off pieces of coins. Counterfeiting was also an issue. Newton used a scientific precision to improve the accuracy of coinmaking as Warden and then Master of the Mint.
He also took it upon himself to prosecute culprits, some of whom ended up hanging from the gallows. His later years would be spent further cementing his reputation and sometimes that meant trying to erase his rivals from the history books.
Another ugly dispute involved a brilliant scientist named Robert Hooke who contended he was the one who gave Newton the notion that led to his theory of gravity and wanted credit. In response, Newton is accused of using his powers as President of the Royal Society to get rid of the only known portrait of Hooke.
None exists to this day.
Newton succeeded in getting the legacy he wanted. In 1705, Queen Anne of England knighted him during a royal visit to the University of Cambridge, making him Sir Isaac Newton.
He was a convoluted man who remained withdrawn yet desperately wanted to be remembered, who threw himself into his work at the cost of all hobbies and never married, a person, who was a man of science and also, a man of faith.
Newton died in his sleep on March 20, 1727 and was buried at Westminster Abbey. The Latin inscription on his grave reads: Here
lies that which was mortal of Isaac Newton.
His eternal heritage continues to pattern our modern world. The English poet Alexander Pope was so moved by Newton's triumphs, he wrote the illustrious epitaph: Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night. God said "Let Newton be" and all was light.
One of the most all-inclusive and coherent biographies of Newton that I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading!!
Author: Richard S. Westfall
Publisher: Cambridge University Press; Revised ed. edition (29 April 1983)
Language: English
Paperback: 928 pages
Item Weight: 1 kg 240 g
Dimensions: 15.6 x 4.65 x 23.39 cm
Country of Origin: USA
Price: 3349/-
‘Born in 1564, Galileo had lived nearly to eighty. Newton would live nearly to eighty-five. Between them they virtually spanned the entire scientific revolution, the central core of which their combined work constituted. In fact, only England's stiff-necked Protestantism permitted the chronological liaison. Because it considered that popery had fatally contaminated the Gregorian calendar, England was ten days out of phase with the Continent, where it was 4 January 1643 the day Newton was born. We can sacrifice the symbol without losing anything of substance. It matters only that he was born and at such a time that he could utilize Galileo's work…’
This 900 plus page tome has been divided into fifteen chapters:
1 - The discovery ef a new world
2 - A sober, silent, thinking lad
3 - The solitary scholar
4 - Resolving problems by motion
5 - Anni mirabiles
6 - Lucasian professor
7 - Publication and crisis
8 - Rebellion
9 - Years of silence
10 - Principia
11 - Revolution
12 - The Mint
13 - President of the Royal Society
14 - The priority dispute
15 - Years of decline
A list of the most dominant people of all time wouldn’t be inclusive without Sir Isaac Newton. Newton's laws are coupled to almost all that we perceive in everyday life. They help us comprehend how cars work, how satellites move, how anything moves.
Yet there were several secret facets to the 17th century scientist which becomes clear by the end of this book. The third chapter of this book calls him, ‘The solitary scholar’
By his mid-20s, Newton had already invented calculus. Not bad for the son of an uneducated cultivator.
He would never meet his father who died three months before his birth on Christmas day 1642 in the petite English village of Woolsthorpe Manor in the county of Lincolnshire.
He was a premature baby and so small he was later told, he could fit inside a quart mug. He only just survived. When Newton was three, his mother remarried and moved to a close by village to live with a well-off clergyman.
Newton was left behind in the care of his grandparents.
That desertion profoundly blemished him. Years later, he wrote a list of his sins, recalling a flare-up from infancy: "Threatening my father and mother Smith to burn them and the house over them."
He was an inquisitive child - more interested in mechanics than making friends.
He carved a sundial as a nine-year-old. When he was 12, he enrolled at a local grammar school. His signature can still be seen by a windowsill of the King's School today.
After the death of his stepfather, his mother tried to remove him from school so he could be a farmer - a vision that he dreaded. Providentially, the schoolmaster convinced his mother to send him back to class where he gained the knowledge essential to enter the University of Cambridge in 1661, paying his way by working as a valet.
Although he studied the works of the ancient Greek philosophers, he questioned their theories writing in his notebook in Latin, "Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my best friend is truth."
He vowed to find the truth through thorough scientific testing.
His time as an undergraduate was average but the unexpected events that happened next would set the theater for his greatest achievements.
Shortly after receiving his Bachelor's degree in 1665, the bubonic plague ravaged Europe and would take the lives of an estimated one out of every four people in London. The pandemic forced Newton to work from his childhood home for the next two years and would lead to his most miraculous advances.
He used a prism to discover that white light and sunlight is made up of the colors of the rainbow. The extensively held conviction at the time was Aristotle's theory that colour was a jumble of black and white. To prove his hypothesis, Newton built a reflecting telescope that used mirrors rather than lenses - leading to a more precise image.
That's a whole lot safer than the time he stuck a sewing needle into his eye socket to figure out if altering his eye outline would change his understanding of colour.
Outside the family home was also an apple tree -- the celebrated apple tree. Legend has it that Newton was sitting underneath a tree when an apple bonked him on the head, prompting him to think about gravity - the force that brings things down.
There's no proof to suggest the fruit really fell on his head but he did ask the question that helped unchain our understanding of the universe: Could the same force reach all the way to the moon?
He reasoned that the same gravitational pull kept the moon orbiting around Earth rather than wandering off and he believed this could also clarify the movement of our planets in the solar system. The mathematics at the time wasn't sophisticated enough to conclude the motion of these objects so Newton invented his own form of math calculus.
There was a dispute over who actually invented calculus. When German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz published his paper on calculus in 1684, Newton claimed he’d done the same work 20 years prior.
The thing is, Newton was so enigmatic and guarded that he hadn't in point of fact made his efforts public for the reason that he couldn't stand the inspection of his work. When Leibniz appealed to the Royal Society in London, Newton wielded his influence as the scientific academy's president to get it to side with him. Most historians agree that the two discovered calculus separately. In 1667, after the end of the plague, he returned to the University to carry on his research as a fellow.
He was a workaholic. Sometimes, he'd forget to eat.
Just two years later while still in his mid-twenties, he obtained one of the most prestigious academic posts in the world, the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics’, later held by none other then Stephen Hawking.
Yet he was indifferent to his students. One time, when no one showed up for class, he is said to have lectured to an empty room. His true passion lay in research. In 1687, he published his masterpiece: the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy - often referred to simply as Principia - one of the most important works ever penned. It was here that he laid out his law of universal gravitation as well as his three laws of motion.
Newton may be considered one of the greatest scientists the world has ever known. Yet he in fact contributed more words to theology. Newton believed the Bible provided the convention to the natural world and by carefully studying the Holy texts, he could predict the future. He believed the apocalypse would happen in the year 2060 with the caveat: "It may end later but I see no reason for its ending sooner."
He foresaw a period marked by war and catastrophe followed by the second coming of Christ and the beginning of a new, divine era. His religious side was largely hidden from the public all the way until 1936, when Sotheby's auctioned off his theological manuscripts. They ended up in the hands of a Jewish scholar before being given to the state of Israel.
In 7,500 pages in Newton’s own handwriting, he did hold unconventional views of Christianity by rejecting the Trinity - the conviction in the father, son, and the Holy Spirit. And he also fought against the effort by King James II to catholicize the universities, which got him elected as a Member of Parliament, where he served two concise terms.
Rumour has it that, the only thing he said on the record was to appeal that a window be closed.
Newton also had another unidentified side to him. He spent 25 years clandestinely studying alchemy - the search for a method to twist common metals into gold. This is a manuscript where Newton wrote down a recipe thought to be a step toward concocting the fabled Philosopher's Stone now popularized in the Harry Potter series. Alchemists believed it could even help humans achieve immortality.
Unfortunately, Newton may have gotten mercury poisoning from all the time spent in the laboratory. Examinations of his hair after his death found high levels of the toxic compound which scholars believe could explain his mental breakdown in 1693 when he lost grip on reality.
He wrote letters accusing the few friends he had of conspiring against him. He suffered from insomnia and oppression. The personal crisis lasted a year and a half.
Not too long after he ended his 30-year career at Cambridge. In 1696, he moved to London to help run the Royal Mint. Britain's finances were in ruins because of the rampant practice of clipping off pieces of coins. Counterfeiting was also an issue. Newton used a scientific precision to improve the accuracy of coinmaking as Warden and then Master of the Mint.
He also took it upon himself to prosecute culprits, some of whom ended up hanging from the gallows. His later years would be spent further cementing his reputation and sometimes that meant trying to erase his rivals from the history books.
Another ugly dispute involved a brilliant scientist named Robert Hooke who contended he was the one who gave Newton the notion that led to his theory of gravity and wanted credit. In response, Newton is accused of using his powers as President of the Royal Society to get rid of the only known portrait of Hooke.
None exists to this day.
Newton succeeded in getting the legacy he wanted. In 1705, Queen Anne of England knighted him during a royal visit to the University of Cambridge, making him Sir Isaac Newton.
He was a convoluted man who remained withdrawn yet desperately wanted to be remembered, who threw himself into his work at the cost of all hobbies and never married, a person, who was a man of science and also, a man of faith.
Newton died in his sleep on March 20, 1727 and was buried at Westminster Abbey. The Latin inscription on his grave reads: Here
lies that which was mortal of Isaac Newton.
His eternal heritage continues to pattern our modern world. The English poet Alexander Pope was so moved by Newton's triumphs, he wrote the illustrious epitaph: Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night. God said "Let Newton be" and all was light.
One of the most all-inclusive and coherent biographies of Newton that I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading!!
April 25, 2021
The best biography I’ve read of this extraordinary man. Highly recommended!!
January 11, 2021
An exceptional detailed biography. If you are looking for a light read, and want to know more about Sir Issac Newton this book is not for you. However, if you want to read all that is possible to read about him without traveling to Cambridge to view the source documents, than this book is for you. Newton was a complicated man, and this book shows you both sides. On the one hand Newton had several character flaws, and had trouble maintaining any sort of warm relations with anyone. On the other hand, he was the most revolutionary scientist of his time whose work directly shapes all aspects of modern life.
August 22, 2021
This is an incredibly detailed and well researched biography. Never at Rest is an excellent read that explores extensively into the life, obsessions, skills, and achievements of Isaac Newton. The book is huge, super informative, includes some pictures, and will greatly enhance your understanding of one of the most important men of science.
I loved reading this and enjoyed discovering a bunch of new information I never learned before from documentaries or the book I read by James Gleick. Great read! I highly recommend this book!
I loved reading this and enjoyed discovering a bunch of new information I never learned before from documentaries or the book I read by James Gleick. Great read! I highly recommend this book!
November 29, 2018
Comprehensive, enthralling (even the parts about his alchemical career and his time at the Mint), superb on his mathematical achievements, one of the best accounts of the writing of the Principia I've ever read. Wish Westfall wasn't so harsh on Newton at times (beyond the way Newton treated Hooke and Flamsteed), but his account is deeply humane and compassionate, and Newton wasn't the nicest guy in history.
June 16, 2019
An absolutely wonderful book. This book provides a comprehensive overview of Newton's life, and more importantly, his achievements. Often when titans of science or mathematics are given the biography treatment the book will go heavy on the interpersonal drama and light on the content of the achievements themselves.
That is not the case here. A fascinating exploration of Newton's discoveries are given, in clear and delightful detail. I found the book to be gripping and extremely fun.
That is not the case here. A fascinating exploration of Newton's discoveries are given, in clear and delightful detail. I found the book to be gripping and extremely fun.
July 16, 2019
Excellent biography of Newton. Very detailed and well researched. Westfall has a great grasp of Newton's reasoning and scientific ideas. You can read this book as a biography and a clear presentation of Newton's scientific work.
July 3, 2024
If you're really interested in knowing everything about Isaac Newton, this is the book for you. If you want a biography that you can read in one sitting or even a few days, this isn't it. It's quite dense and sometimes it reads like an academic paper. Overall, it's a well-written biography.
May 22, 2019
An incredibly detailed biography of not only Newton, but many of those who passed through his life who influenced him, and whom he influenced.
Shelved as 'abandoned'
September 2, 2021No
February 22, 2023
Put it down. Too difficult for me to comprehend. Maybe I will try again another time.
August 31, 2014
A. Synopsis: Holding Newton to a caliber reached by few other men Westfall indicates that his subject was “one of the tiny handful of supreme geniuses...not reducible to the criteria by which we comprehend our fellow beings.” Westfall examines all aspects of Newton’s life from science, alchemy, theology, heading of the Royal Society, and operations at the mint during recoinage. Set within this broad scope of his life are his greatest achievements in mathematics, dynamics, celestial mechanics, and optics. Also, this book places Newton in his times (the work of Aristotle, Descartes, Hobbs, and Boyle) and shows how he transcended them. This was the first biography based extensively on manuscript sources. The title is drawn from the idea that Newton’s mind was never at rest.
B. Outline
1. Childhood: His childhood was difficult. His father died before he was born and his mother died when he was 2. He lived with his grandmother who he cared little about. As a boy he built models of windmills, and a paper lantern which he could fold into his pocket (and also flew as a kite). School was mostly Latin and Greek with no mathematics.
2. Trinity College, Cambridge: He moved from undergrad to fellow to Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. He had no duties to perform as fellow. This was a very low period in Cambridge’s intellectual history. Newton became a recluse, drew his checks, and studied mathematics. After becoming Lucasian Professor he was required to give 10 lectures a year.
3. Alchemy: This played a major part in his life though he never publicly disclosed his interest in finding a chemical basis to physical reality. Westfall speculates that Newton could have extended this idea to a new cosmology. (Crystals held by forces of “sociability”). Gold making never dominated his concern. The concept of Truth and a secret knowledge was what enticed him. Where did mechanical philosophy and alchemy collide? MP said matter was inert while alchemy said it was an active agent. Why did he study alchemy. It was a rebellion against the mechanical philosophy which yielded too easily to him.
4. Theology: These traditional beliefs played a well-defined part in his life. He Kept a theological notebook which extended to well over 700 pages. He had a religious crisis based on trinitarianism. He argued vehemently that the father, son and hold ghost should not be worshipped as three separate gods. Later in life he performed a tremendous amount of biblical research.
5. Principia (1684-87): This was his monumental achievement and the turning point of his life. For the first time he brought one area of his work to completion. The word centripetal (which Newton coined) is the word that best characterizes this work. It means seeking the center, as opposed to Huygen’s word centrifugal or fleeing the center. Thus the Principia is a study of centripetal forces as they determine orbital motion. 3 Laws of Motion. Inverse-square relation. These led him to conclude that the same force which caused the moon to revolve around the earth caused an apple to fall.
6. Revolution: This is what Westfall calls the response to the book. Newton became a member of Parliament. In 1693 he suffered a breakdown. This ended the creative phase of his life. The remaining 34 years were spent reworking earlier theories.
7. The Mint: In 1696 he takes a bureaucratic post to work on recoinage. He mastered the entire minting process. One job which he was not cut out for was the apprehension of counterfeiters.
8. President of the Royal Society: He was by no means a unanimous choice for this post. He returned an intellectual content back to the meetings. The Society also benefited by his administrative capabilities. In 1704 he publishes Optiks. It contained his theory of colors and the heterogeneity of light. He did not include anything controversial because he was still very insecure and afraid of criticism.
B. Outline
1. Childhood: His childhood was difficult. His father died before he was born and his mother died when he was 2. He lived with his grandmother who he cared little about. As a boy he built models of windmills, and a paper lantern which he could fold into his pocket (and also flew as a kite). School was mostly Latin and Greek with no mathematics.
2. Trinity College, Cambridge: He moved from undergrad to fellow to Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. He had no duties to perform as fellow. This was a very low period in Cambridge’s intellectual history. Newton became a recluse, drew his checks, and studied mathematics. After becoming Lucasian Professor he was required to give 10 lectures a year.
3. Alchemy: This played a major part in his life though he never publicly disclosed his interest in finding a chemical basis to physical reality. Westfall speculates that Newton could have extended this idea to a new cosmology. (Crystals held by forces of “sociability”). Gold making never dominated his concern. The concept of Truth and a secret knowledge was what enticed him. Where did mechanical philosophy and alchemy collide? MP said matter was inert while alchemy said it was an active agent. Why did he study alchemy. It was a rebellion against the mechanical philosophy which yielded too easily to him.
4. Theology: These traditional beliefs played a well-defined part in his life. He Kept a theological notebook which extended to well over 700 pages. He had a religious crisis based on trinitarianism. He argued vehemently that the father, son and hold ghost should not be worshipped as three separate gods. Later in life he performed a tremendous amount of biblical research.
5. Principia (1684-87): This was his monumental achievement and the turning point of his life. For the first time he brought one area of his work to completion. The word centripetal (which Newton coined) is the word that best characterizes this work. It means seeking the center, as opposed to Huygen’s word centrifugal or fleeing the center. Thus the Principia is a study of centripetal forces as they determine orbital motion. 3 Laws of Motion. Inverse-square relation. These led him to conclude that the same force which caused the moon to revolve around the earth caused an apple to fall.
6. Revolution: This is what Westfall calls the response to the book. Newton became a member of Parliament. In 1693 he suffered a breakdown. This ended the creative phase of his life. The remaining 34 years were spent reworking earlier theories.
7. The Mint: In 1696 he takes a bureaucratic post to work on recoinage. He mastered the entire minting process. One job which he was not cut out for was the apprehension of counterfeiters.
8. President of the Royal Society: He was by no means a unanimous choice for this post. He returned an intellectual content back to the meetings. The Society also benefited by his administrative capabilities. In 1704 he publishes Optiks. It contained his theory of colors and the heterogeneity of light. He did not include anything controversial because he was still very insecure and afraid of criticism.
July 27, 2024
Me llevó añares leerlo porque es enciclopédico, se me hizo pesado por partes aunque la verdad es increíble que alguien haya logrado recopilar tanta info detallada sobre alguien que vivió en el siglo XVII. Le sacaría algunas partes con explicaciones matemáticas, engordan la biografía sin mucho sentido, y lo digo como persona del área. No sé si quiero leerlas en el medio de un texto biográfico. 🤔
August 28, 2013
Isaac Newton leaps off these pages as more than someone who merely sat in a room and doodled, giving birth to the Principia and Opticks from his forehead like Athena. We even get a glimpse at his first and only chaste puppy love.
As a committed Arian, he risked everything by refusing to swear the required Trinitarian oath he would have to abjure.
The book pulls no punches, however about the miasma of alchemy and pseudo-Rosicrucianism that fuelled his private life. It limns this guy as like some mashup of Otto Weininger and the main character from The Name of the Rose. His adventures into chemistry rapidly take on the the quality of Don Quijote tilting at windmills.
The later chapters are enjoyable, with his tenure as Master of the Mint (see, scientists didn't just start selling out in the eighties), his supervision of hanging of convicted forgers, his Liberace-esque tastes in interior decorating (Edgar Allen Poe clearly took notes of his crimson fetish) and his interest in the longitude problem.
As a committed Arian, he risked everything by refusing to swear the required Trinitarian oath he would have to abjure.
The book pulls no punches, however about the miasma of alchemy and pseudo-Rosicrucianism that fuelled his private life. It limns this guy as like some mashup of Otto Weininger and the main character from The Name of the Rose. His adventures into chemistry rapidly take on the the quality of Don Quijote tilting at windmills.
The later chapters are enjoyable, with his tenure as Master of the Mint (see, scientists didn't just start selling out in the eighties), his supervision of hanging of convicted forgers, his Liberace-esque tastes in interior decorating (Edgar Allen Poe clearly took notes of his crimson fetish) and his interest in the longitude problem.
March 31, 2016
I always wanted to read the most definitive biography available on Sir Isaac Newton. Well, I got my wish. This masterpiece by Richard S. Westfall is so detailed, so encompassing, so complete, that it was, in many ways, over the top. A bit esoteric in its mathematics and calculus, it just proved to me even more the depth of Newton's genius. I am very impressed that the author, unlike most biographers, is honest to the point of exposing Newton's numerous personality flaws, which were many. But he had many positive attributes, and they were likewise well documented. Newton was a genius among geniuses, but not in all he did. A very well-balanced and perfectly honest biography, a very rare thing indeed.
October 6, 2009
An exhaustive biography that offers little to anyone except those writing a report on the man. Includes everything you never really cared about, like how much he spent on various living supplies in 1666, and often repeats various things that it assumes you already know beforehand without even introducing it. There's a whole lot of tedium here, and not much that is actually interesting.
June 22, 2015
The very first biography I ever read. It was in High School, and though I was forced to read a biography, I was able to make my own choice. I was interested in science and math and this book jumped out at me. It was ponderous at times because of my lack of enthusiasm for reality and history, but it quickly gripped me. I was hooked and have read many science and math biographies since.
August 28, 2012
If you ever want to get into the minutiae of Isaac Newton's life, this is the book. At 800 pages, it's thorough and enlightening. I never knew about Newton's appointment to the head of the Mint, or really anything about his later life. I skipped much of that (it is, well, rather tedious).
August 3, 2016
Excellent biography of Newton. Very detailed and well researched. Westfall has a great grasp of Newton's reasoning and scientific ideas. You can read this book as a biography and a clear presentation of Newton's scientific work.
July 2, 2016
Some good quotes and an interesting look at the life and focus of a great scientist. Lots of math I didn't understand and skipped and so many letters between people that I didn't find interesting burin sure someone fascinated with Newton would love every minute detail provided.
Currently reading
March 24, 2010Pretty cool so far - the author begins with an account of the evolution of scientific thought and the key people who spurred it on - Aristotle, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo etc.
November 8, 2010
it is the best biography i have ever read .............
Its awesome!!!!!!!!!!
Its awesome!!!!!!!!!!
September 30, 2022
It is a wonderful book to read
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