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About this quote

What does it mean?
Newton advises constant contemplation, waiting for gradual illumination of ideas.
In plain terms
Think about it constantly until understanding slowly emerges.
What can you take from it?
Persistent reflection yields insight.

Where it applies

  • problem solving
  • creative work

Putting it to work

  • keep the issue in mind daily

Questions to consider

  • When is contemplation too long?
  • How to balance thinking and doing?

Another view

Over‑thinking can stall action.

More from Isaac Newton

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  2. Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.

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  3. 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 …

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