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Quote by Marcus Tullius Cicero

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Marcus Tullius Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a prominent philosopher, politician, lawyer, orator, and writer during the late Roman Republic. The exact dates of his birth and death are unknown, but he was active in the 1st century BC. Known for his profound thoughts and exceptional literary style, Cicero has had a lasting impact on Western culture. more

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“Every improvement that is put upon the real estate is the result of an idea in somebody's head. The skyscraper is another idea; the railroad is another; the telephone and all those things are merely symbols which represent ideas. An andiron, a wash-tub, is the result of an idea that did not exist before.”

IdeasRealScienceResultsExistenceImprovementInventionSymbolsEstatesTelephonesRailroadsSkyscraperTubs
Book:Mark Twain's Speeches
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“Human behaviour reveals uniformities which constitute natural laws. If these uniformities did not exist, then there would be neither social science nor political economy, and even the study of history would largely be useless. In effect, if the future actions of men having nothing in common with their past actions, our knowledge of them, although possibly satisfying our curiosity by way of an interesting story, would be entirely useless to us as a guide in life.”

IfsMenWayHumansStoriesWould BeActionPastLawSciencePoliticalSocialNaturalInterestingCommonExistenceKnowledgeHistoryEconomyStudyEffectsCuriosityGuidesUselessSatisfyingBehaviourNatural LawUniformitySocial SciencePolitical EconomyHuman BehaviourInteresting Stories
Author:Vilfredo Pareto
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“If all sentient beings in the universe disappeared, there would remain a sense in which mathematical objects and theorems would continue to exist even though there would be no one around to write or talk about them. Huge prime numbers would continue to be prime, even if no one had proved them prime.”

IfsWritingWould BeScienceUniverseNumbersExistenceObjectsHugeMathematicalPrimeTheoremsSentient BeingsPrime Numbers
Book:When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish: And Other Speculations About This and That
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“In the heavens we discover [stars] by their light, and by their light alone ... the sole evidence of the existence of these distant worlds ... that each of them is built up of molecules of the same kinds we find on earth. A molecule of hydrogen, for example, whether in Sirius or in Arcturus, executes its vibrations in precisely the same time. Each molecule therefore throughout the universe bears impressed upon it the stamp of a metric system as distinctly as does the metre of the Archives at Paris, or the royal cubit of the Temple of Karnac.”

WorldKindDoeLightEarthScienceUniverseHeavenStarsExistenceExampleBearsEvidenceBuiltParisTemplesSoleImpressedRoyalStampsVibrationsMoleculesHydrogenArchivesMetricsSiriusMetric System
Author:James Clerk Maxwell
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“Know thyself! This is the source of all wisdom, said the great thinkers of the past, and the sentence was written in golden letters on the temple of the gods. To know himself, Linnæus declared to be the essential indisputable distinction of man above all other creatures. I know, indeed, in study nothing more worthy of free and thoughtful man than the study of himself. For if we look for the purpose of our existence, we cannot possibly find it outside ourselves. We are here for our own sake.”

IfsKnowsMenLooksSaidPastSciencePurposeExistenceStudyWrittenSourceCreaturesEssentialsLettersSakeWorthySentencesGoldenThoughtfulDistinctionTemplesThinkerThyselfKnow ThyselfGreat Thinkers
Author:Karl Ernst von Baer
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“Man is a little germ that lives on an unimportant rock ball that revolves about a small star at the outskirts of an ordinary galaxy. ... I am absolutely amazed to discover myself on this rock ball rotating around a spherical fire. It's a very odd situation. And the more I look at things I cannot get rid of the feeling that existence is quite weird.”

MenLooksLittlesFeelingsEarthScienceStarsExistenceSituationSunFireRocksOrdinaryBallsOddAmazedGalaxyUnimportantGermsRotating
Author:Alan Watts
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