"Objectivity was the opposite of self-interest and ambition; the natural philosopher served mankind rather than himself." (7)

"The ideology of the Enlightenment tended to make natural philosophers into heroes, and in France the greatest hero of all was Newton, partly because he was from England, the source of free thought and liberty in the minds of Frenchmen like Voltaire and Montesquieu, but also because he solved the riddle of the planets, showing that their motions obeyed the same laws as motions on earth." (9)

"Newton had advocated a method of analysis and synthesis in experiment whereby complex phenomena were to be analyzed into simple components...and then recombined by 'synthesis.'" (20)

"Newton believed that the universe would run down if it were not for God's intervention to renew his creation." (33)

"In fact, the Chemical Revolution was more the creation of a new science than a change in an existing one...