TuesdaySep 29, 2026
Quotes: 53419 Authors: 9969
Give me where to stand, and I will move the earth. Said with reference to the lever.
Whether or not Copernicus knew it, even genuine heliocentrism had at least one ancient advocate: 'But Aristarchus of Samos brought out a book consisting of certain hypotheses, in which the premises lead to the conclusion that the universe is many times greater than that now so called. His hypotheses are that the fixed stars and the sun remain motion less, that the earth revolves about the sun in the circumference of a circle, the sun lying in the middle of the orbit, and that the sphere of the fixed stars, situated about the same center as the sun, is so great that the circle in which he supposes the earth to revolve bears such a proportion to the distance of the fixed stars as the center of the sphere bears to its surface.'
Eureka! [I have found it!] On discovery of a method to test the purity of gold.
Spoken of the young Archimedes: ... [he] was as much enchanted by the rudiments of algebra as he would have been if I had given him an engine worked by steam, with a methylated spirit lamp to heat the boiler; more enchanted, perhaps for the engine would have got broken, and, remaining always itself, would in any case have lost its charm, while the rudiments of algebra continued to grow and blossom in his mind with an unfailing luxuriance. Every day he made the discovery of something which seemed to him exquisitely beautiful; the new toy was inexhaustible in its potentialities.
Give me a firm place to stand, and I will move the earth.
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