Person

Ptolemy

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Notable quotes

“I know that I am mortal by nature and ephemeral, but when I trace at my pleasure the windings to and fro of the heavenly bodies, I no longer touch earth with my feet. I stand in the presence of Zeus himself and take my fill of ambrosia.”
— In some of the manuscripts, the books begins with this epigram (Owen Gingerich, The Eye of Heaven: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler, American Institute of Physics, 1993, p. 55).
“We consider it a good principle to explain the phenomena by the simplest hypothesis possible.”
— Book III, sec 1 (trans. Gerald J. Toomer)
“πᾶν μὲν τὸ δυσέφικτον παρὰ τοῖς πολλοῖς εὐδιάβλητον ἔχει φύσιν”
— Everything that is hard to attain is easily assailed by the generality of men.
“The length of lifetakes the leading place among inquiries about events following birth.”
— Book III, sec. 10
“As material fortune is associated with the properties of the body, so honor belongs to those of the soul.”
— Book IV, sec. 1
“There are three classes of friendship and enmity, since men are so disposed to one another either by preference or by need or through pleasure and pain.”
— Book IV, sec. 7

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

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“I know that I am mortal by nature and ephemeral, but when I trace at my pleasure the windings to and fro of the heavenly bodies, I no longer touch earth with my feet. I stand in the presence of Zeus himself and take my fill of ambrosia.”
— In some of the manuscripts, the books begins with this epigram (Owen Gingerich, The Eye of Heaven: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler, American Institute of Physics, 1993, p. 55).
“We consider it a good principle to explain the phenomena by the simplest hypothesis possible.”
— Book III, sec 1 (trans. Gerald J. Toomer)
“πᾶν μὲν τὸ δυσέφικτον παρὰ τοῖς πολλοῖς εὐδιάβλητον ἔχει φύσιν”
— Everything that is hard to attain is easily assailed by the generality of men.
“The length of lifetakes the leading place among inquiries about events following birth.”
— Book III, sec. 10
“As material fortune is associated with the properties of the body, so honor belongs to those of the soul.”
— Book IV, sec. 1
“There are three classes of friendship and enmity, since men are so disposed to one another either by preference or by need or through pleasure and pain.”
— Book IV, sec. 7

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.