This amazing and religious genius believed that his insights into the functioning of the universe were merely recovered artifacts of "ancient wisdom" from pre-Christian civilizations that understood the principles of the universe

Isaac Newton deeply believed that his discoveries were recovering ancient wisdom lost from earlier civilizations. He spent more time on theological and alchemical studies than on physics, writing over a million words on religion and believing that biblical passages contained encoded mathematical and scientific knowledge. This view of prisca sapientia (ancient wisdom) was common among Renaissance thinkers, but Newton pursued it more systematically than most.