"About Thomas Hobbes: He was 40 years old……" — John Aubrey
"About Thomas Hobbes: He was 40 years old before he looked on geometry; which happened accidentally. Being in a gentleman's library, Euclid's Elements lay open, and "twas the 47 El. libri I" [Pythagoras' Theorem]. He read the proposition "By God", sayd he, "this is impossible:" So he reads the demonstration of it, which referred him back to such a proposition; which proposition he read. That referred him back to another, which he also read. Et sic deinceps, that at last he was demonstratively convinced of that truth. This made him in love with geometry."
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John Aubrey
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15 Quotes by John Aubrey
John Aubrey has 15 quotes on this site.
A few more worth reading:
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Sir Walter, being strangely surprised and put out of his countenance at so great a table, gives his son a…
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He [William Harvey] did not care for chymistrey, and was wont to speake against them with an undervalue.
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Mr Hooke sent, in his next letter [to Sir Isaac Newton] the whole of his Hypothesis, scil that the gravitation…
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I have heard him [William Harvey] say, that after his Booke of the Circulation of the Blood came-out, that he…
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The silver Thames takes some part of this county in its journey to Oxford.
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Mr. William Shakespeare was born at Stratford upon Avon in the county of Warwick. His father was a butcher, and…
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This Earle of Oxford, making of his low obeisance to Queen Elizabeth, happened to let a Fart, at which he…
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How these curiosities would be quite forgott, did not such idle fellowes as I am putt them downe!
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Box about: 'twill come to my father anon.
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I have been in danger of being drowned twice.
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If Solomon counts the day of one's death better than the day of one's birth, there can be no objection…
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Arise Evans had a fungous nose, and said, it was revealed to him, that the King's hand would cure him,…
See all 15 quotes by John Aubrey »
More Accidentally Quotes
This quote is filed under Accidentally Quotes,
one of 262 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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In 1945 J.A. Ratcliffe ... suggested that I [join his group at Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge] to start an investigation of…
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The true genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction.
— Samuel Johnson
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There's more to be learned here [St. Andrews] about course design than anywhere. Collection bunkers, false fronts, bump shots. The…
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Viktor Petrenko and I met at a competition, where I beat him completely accidentally. I felt so embarrassed in front…
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If I hurt someone, if I were to accidentally poke someone's eye out, I would laugh. And then I'd say,…
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For exactly the same reason, it is sometimes satisfying to cut yourself and bleed. On those gray [sic] days where…
— Augusten Burroughs
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Would it not be strange if a universe without purpose accidentally created humans who are so obsessed with purpose?
— John Templeton
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Ever heard the story about a cat that accidentally caught a mouse in his sleep? Me neither
— Mike Murdock
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Whether deliberately, unconsciously or accidentally, she seems to have composed her own life so that its fitful, rudderless, and self-doubting…
— Carolyn Heilbrun
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For me songwriting is very...it's almost like an accident. 'Oh I accidentally wrote about that.' I sit down with the…
— Unknown Author
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When I was 23, 24, I used to have a really bad runny nose, mucus, tons of acne, reddishness all…
— Woody Harrelson
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I started in radio, again accidentally. I wasn't looking for this kind of work at all.
— Hector Elizondo
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