Ernst Mach on Joseph Louis Lagrange

“The questions here dealt with have occupied me since my earliest youth, when my interest for them was powerfully stimulated by the beautiful introductions of Lagrange to the chapters of his Analytic Mechanics...”

“Analytic mechanics... was brought to the highest degree of perfection by Lagrange. Lagrange's aim is (Mécanique analytique... 1788) to dispose, once and for all, of the reasoning necessary to resolve mechanical problems, by embodying as much as possible of it in a single formula. This he did. Every case... can now be dealt with by a very simple, highly symmetrical and perspicuous schema; and whatever reasoning is left is performed by purely mechanical methods. The mechanics of Lagrange is a stupendous contribution to the economy of thought.”