To Myself I Am Only A

This reflection was recorded by Newton's friend and physician William Stukeley, and later preserved in Sir David Brewster's Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton (1855, Vol. II, Ch. 27). Newton spoke it near the end of his life, comparing himself to a child finding pebbles and shells on a beach while the vast ocean of truth remained unexplored before him. Coming from the man who formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation, it stands as one of history's most remarkable expressions of intellectual humility.