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Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index P > Proclus Quotes

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Proclus
(410 - 17 Apr 485)

Greek mathematician.


Science Quotes by Proclus (5 quotes)

In the discovery of lemmas the best aid is a mental aptitude for it. For we may see many who are quick at solutions and yet do not work by method ; thus Cratistus in our time was able to obtain the required result from first principles, and those the fewest possible, but it was his natural gift which helped him to the discovery.
— Proclus
As given in Euclid, The Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements, translated from the text of Johan Ludvig Heiberg by Sir Thomas Little Heath, Vol. 1, Introduction and Books 1,2 (1908), 133. The passage also states that Proclus gives the definition of the term lemma as a proposition not proved beforehand. Glenn Raymond Morrow in A Commentary on the First Book of Euclid's Elements (1992), 165, states nothing more seems to be known of Cratistus.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Aid (101)  |  Aptitude (19)  |  Best (467)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Do (1905)  |  Fewest (5)  |  First (1302)  |  Gift (105)  |  Lemma (2)  |  Mental (179)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Natural (810)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Obtaining (5)  |  Possible (560)  |  Principle (530)  |  Quick (13)  |  Required (108)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Result (700)  |  See (1094)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solution. (53)  |  Time (1911)  |  Work (1402)

It is well known that the man who first made public the theory of irrationals perished in a shipwreck in order that the inexpressible and unimaginable should ever remain veiled. And so the guilty man, who fortuitously touched on and revealed this aspect of living things, was taken to the place where he began and there is for ever beaten by the waves.
— Proclus
In scholium to Book X of Euclid t. V, 417 as quoted and cited in Ettore Carruccio and Isabel Quigly (trans.), Mathematics And Logic in History And in Contemporary Thought (1964), 27.
Science quotes on:  |  Aspect (129)  |  Beat (42)  |  Begin (275)  |  First (1302)  |  Fortuitous (11)  |  Guilty (8)  |  Irrational (16)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Living (492)  |  Living Thing (4)  |  Man (2252)  |  Order (638)  |  Perish (56)  |  Place (192)  |  Public (100)  |  Remain (355)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revealed (59)  |  Shipwreck (8)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Touch (146)  |  Unimaginable (7)  |  Veil (27)  |  Wave (112)

They say that Ptolemy once asked him [Euclid] whether there was in geometry no shorter way than that of the elements and he replied, “There is no royal road to geometry”.
— Proclus
In (Edition Friedlein, 1873), Prol. II, 39.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Element (322)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Ptolemy (19)  |  Reply (58)  |  Royal (56)  |  Royal Road (4)  |  Say (989)  |  Short (200)  |  Way (1214)

This therefore is Mathematics:
She reminds you of the invisible forms of the soul;
She gives life to her own discoveries;
She awakens the mind and purifies the intellect;
She brings light to our intrinsic ideas;
She abolishes oblivion and ignorance which are ours by birth...
— Proclus
Quoted in Benjamin Franklin Finkel, Mathematical Association of America, The American Mathematical Monthly (1947), Vol. 54, 425.
Science quotes on:  |  Abolish (13)  |  Awaken (17)  |  Birth (154)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Form (976)  |  Idea (881)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intrinsic (18)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Oblivion (10)  |  Purify (9)  |  Soul (235)

Wherever there is number, there is beauty.
— Proclus
Quoted in Morris Kline, Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times (1990), Vol. 1, 131.
Science quotes on:  |  Beauty (313)  |  Number (710)  |  Wherever (51)


See also:
  • 17 Apr - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Proclus's death.

Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
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