"Laplace Theorizes That the Solar System Originated from a Cloud of Gas." Science and Its Times: Understanding the Social Significance ofScientific Discovery. Encyclopedia.com, n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2017. <http://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/laplace-theorizes-solar-system-originated-cloud-gas>. "The two greatest astronomers of Revolutionary and Napoleonic France were Laplace and his rival, Joseph Jérôme Le Français de Lalande (1732–1807), director of the Paris Observatory. Both were atheists. "
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Napoleon said to Pierre Simon Laplace: "You have written this huge book on the system of the world without once mentioning the author of the universe [God]." Laplace replied: "Sire, I had no need of that hypothesis." Quoted in Augustus De Morgan, A Budget of Paradoxes, London, Longmans, Green and Co. , 1872. As found in http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Quotations/Laplace.html, accessed 13 February 2006.
