"Although velocity was a relative in Newtonian science, yet there did not exist one definite velocity which was assumed to be absolute. This was the infinite velocity. It was assumed that a velocity that was infinite or instantaneous for one observer would remain infinite or instantaneous for all other observers. So far... as velocity was concerned, the sole difference between Einstein and Newton is that with Einstein the absolute or invariant velocity is no longer infinite. ...It is this difference between the invariant velocities of Newton and Einstein which is responsible for all the major differences between classical and Einsteinian science... it is this finiteness of the invariant velocity which precludes us from attaching any absolute value to shape and distance. Einstein's theory proves that molar matter can never move with the absolute speed of light. We are therefore perfectly justified in saying that the velocity of matter remains essentially relative, since it can never attain that critical velocity (i.e., that of light) which is absolute."
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A. D'Abro, The Evolution of Scientific Thought from Newton to Einstein (1927) pp. 154-155.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Infinity
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Infinity
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