Editing Isaac Newton (section)

== Personality ==
Although it was claimed that he was once engaged,{{efn|name=claim|This claim was made by [[William Stukeley]] in 1727, in a letter about Newton written to [[Richard Mead]]. [[Charles Hutton]], who in the late eighteenth century collected oral traditions about earlier scientists, declared that there "do not appear to be any sufficient reason for his never marrying, if he had an inclination so to do. It is much more likely that he had a constitutional indifference to the state, and even to the sex in general."<ref>Hutton, Charles (1795/6). ''A Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary''. vol. 2. p. 100.</ref>}} Newton never married. The French writer and philosopher [[Voltaire]], who was in London at the time of Newton's funeral, said that he "was never sensible to any passion, was not subject to the common frailties of mankind, nor had any commerce with women—a circumstance which was assured me by the physician and surgeon who attended him in his last moments."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Voltaire |title=Letters on England |date=1894 |publisher=Cassell |page=100 |chapter=14 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/lettersonenglan00voltgoog#page/n102}}</ref>

Newton had a close friendship with the Swiss mathematician [[Nicolas Fatio de Duillier]], whom he met in London around 1689;<ref name="Hatch" /> some of their correspondence has survived.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Duillier, Nicholas Fatio de (1664–1753) mathematician and natural philosopher |url=http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=CV%2FPers%2FDuillier%2C%20Nicholas%20Fatio%20de%20%281664-1753%29%20mathematician%20and%20natural%20philosopher |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130701114749/http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=CV%2FPers%2FDuillier%2C%20Nicholas%20Fatio%20de%20%281664-1753%29%20mathematician%20and%20natural%20philosopher |archive-date=1 July 2013 |access-date=22 March 2013 |publisher=Janus database}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Collection Guide: Fatio de Duillier, Nicolas [Letters to Isaac Newton] |url=http://www.oac.cdlib.org/search?style=oac4;Institution=UCLA::Clark%20%28William%20Andrews%29%20Memorial%20Library;idT=4859632 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130531055908/http://www.oac.cdlib.org/search?style=oac4;Institution=UCLA::Clark%20%28William%20Andrews%29%20Memorial%20Library;idT=4859632 |archive-date=31 May 2013 |access-date=22 March 2013 |publisher=Online Archive of California}}</ref> Their relationship came to an abrupt and unexplained end in 1693, and at the same time Newton suffered a [[nervous breakdown]],<ref>{{harvnb|Westfall| 1980|pp= 493–497}} on the friendship with Fatio, pp. 531–540 on Newton's breakdown.</ref> which included sending wild accusatory letters to his friends [[Samuel Pepys]] and [[John Locke]]. His note to the latter included the charge that Locke had endeavoured to "embroil" him with "woemen & by other means".{{sfn|Manuel|1968|p=219}}

Newton appeared to be relatively modest about his achievements, writing in a later memoir, "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 finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."<ref>''Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton'' (1855) by Sir David Brewster (Volume II. Ch. 27)</ref> Nonetheless, he could be fiercely competitive and did on occasion hold grudges against his intellectual rivals, not abstaining from personal attacks when it suited him—a common trait found in many of his contemporaries.<ref name=":23">{{Cite book |last=Rowlands |first=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CRM0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA50 |title=Newton And Modern Physics |publisher=[[World Scientific Publishing]] |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-78634-332-1 |pages=50–55}}</ref> In a letter to [[Robert Hooke]] in February 1675, for instance, he confessed "If I have seen further it is by [[standing on the shoulders of giants]]."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Newton |first1=Isaac |title=Letter from Sir Isaac Newton to Robert Hooke |url=https://discover.hsp.org/Record/dc-9792/Description#tabnav |access-date=7 June 2018 |website=Historical Society of Pennsylvania}}</ref> Some historians argued that this, written at a time when Newton and Hooke were disputing over optical discoveries, was an oblique attack on Hooke who was presumably short and hunchbacked, rather than (or in addition to) a statement of modesty.<ref>John Gribbin (2002) ''Science: A History 1543–2001'', p. 164.</ref> On the other hand, the widely known proverb about standing on the shoulders of giants, found in 17th century poet [[George Herbert]]'s {{lang|la|Jacula Prudentum}} (1651) among others, had as its main point that "a dwarf on a giant's shoulders sees farther of the two", and so in effect place Newton himself rather than Hooke as the 'dwarf' who saw farther.{{sfn|White|1997|p=187}}