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Sir Arthur Eddington
An Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle believed the earth was stationary and sat at the center of the solar system with the sun and other planets orbiting it. He thought the world and everything in it has always existed, and was made up of earth, wind, fire, and water. He also believed everything was naturally stationary, unless some force propelled it to move, as well as in the idea of absolute time. For the most part, Aristotle represents the follies of unscientific approaches to understanding the universe. Even so, he did work out from pure logic that the earth is round.
Aristotle Quotes in A Brief History of Time
The A Brief History of Time quotes below are all either spoken by Aristotle or refer to Aristotle. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1
Quotes
The Greeks even had a third argument that the earth must be round, for why else does one first see the sails of a ship coming over the horizon, and only later see the hull?
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Aristotle thought the earth was stationary and that the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars moved in circular orbits about the earth. He believed this because he felt, for mystical reasons, that the earth was the center of the universe, and that circular motion was the most perfect.
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Chapter 2
Quotes
The Aristotelian tradition also held that one could work out all the laws that govern the universe by pure thought: it was not necessary to check by observation. So no one until Galileo bothered to see whether bodies of different weight did in fact fall at different speeds.
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Chapter 3
Quotes
Our sun is just an ordinary, average-sized, yellow star, near the inner edge of one of the spiral arms [of a galaxy that is 100,000 light-years across]. We have certainly come a long way since Aristotle and Ptolemy, when we thought that the earth was the center of the universe!
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Aristotle Quotes in A Brief History of Time
The A Brief History of Time quotes below are all either spoken by Aristotle or refer to Aristotle. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
The Greeks even had a third argument that the earth must be round, for why else does one first see the sails of a ship coming over the horizon, and only later see the hull?
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Aristotle thought the earth was stationary and that the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars moved in circular orbits about the earth. He believed this because he felt, for mystical reasons, that the earth was the center of the universe, and that circular motion was the most perfect.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2
Quotes
The Aristotelian tradition also held that one could work out all the laws that govern the universe by pure thought: it was not necessary to check by observation. So no one until Galileo bothered to see whether bodies of different weight did in fact fall at different speeds.
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Chapter 3
Quotes
Our sun is just an ordinary, average-sized, yellow star, near the inner edge of one of the spiral arms [of a galaxy that is 100,000 light-years across]. We have certainly come a long way since Aristotle and Ptolemy, when we thought that the earth was the center of the universe!
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