Indivisible Quotes (4)

A line is not made up of points. … In the same way, time is not made up parts considered as indivisible 'nows.'
Part of Aristotle's reply to Zeno's paradox concerning continuity.
Aristotle
A succinct summary, not a direct quotation of Aristotle's words. From Aristotle's Physics, Book VI. Sections 1 and 9 as given by Florian Cajori in part 2 of an article 'The History of Zeno's Arguments on Motion', in The American Mathematical Monthly (Feb 1915), 22:2, 41.
See also:  |  Line (7)  |  Paradox (13)  |  Part (2)  |  Point (3)  |  Time (55)  |  Zeno (5)

A mathematical point is the most indivisble and unique thing which art can present.
Letters, 21. 1817. In Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica (1914), 295.
See also:  |  Mathematics (221)  |  Point (3)  |  Unique (2)

All that can be said upon the number and nature of elements is, in my opinion, confined to discussions entirely of a metaphysical nature. The subject only furnishes us with indefinite problems, which may be solved in a thousand different ways, not one of which, in all probability, is consistent with nature. I shall therefore only add upon this subject, that if, by the term elements, we mean to express those simple and indivisible atoms of which matter is composed, it is extremely probable we know nothing at all about them; but, if we apply the term elements, or principles of bodies, to express our idea of the last point which analysis is capable of reaching, we must admit, as elements, all the substances into which we are capable, by any means, to reduce bodies by decomposition.
Elements of Chemistry (1790), trans. R. Kerr, Preface, xxiv.
See also:  |  Analysis (37)  |  Atom (85)  |  Composition (7)  |  Decomposition (6)  |  Element (19)  |  Idea (83)  |  Knowledge (330)  |  Matter (61)  |  Metaphysics (12)  |  Principle (31)  |  Problem (63)  |  Reduction (3)  |  Solution (44)  |  Substance (7)

Knowledge is indivisible. When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to grow wise in other directions as well. On the other hand, when they split up knowledge, concentrate on their own field, and scorn and ignore other fields, they grow less wise–even in their own field.
In The Roving Mind (1983), 116.
See also:  |  Direction (4)  |  Knowledge (330)  |  People (10)  |  Wisdom (43)

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