"At the Egyptian city of Naucratis there..." - Quote by Plato
At the Egyptian city of Naucratis there was a famous old god whose name was Theuth; the bird which is called the Ibis was sacred to him, and he was the inventor of many arts, such as arithmetic and calculation and geometry and astronomy and draughts and dice, but his great discovery was the use of letters.
More by Plato
“That which is apprehended by intelligence and reason is always in the same state; but that which is conceived by opinion with the help of sensation and without reason, is always in a process of becoming and perishing and never really is.”
“Even in reaching for the beautiful there is beauty, and also in suffering whatever it is that one suffers en route.”
“Money-makers are tiresome company, as they have no standard but cash value.”
More on Knowledge
More on Invention
“The very existence of flamethrowers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves, "You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done".”
“O speculators about perpetual motion, how many vain chimeras have you created in the like quest? Go and take your place with the seekers after gold.”
“If Nature had been comfortable, mankind would never have invented architecture.”