"In geometry we begin with the point, which is indimensional. This is the beginning of the first dimensional form, the line, and by movement the point generates the line. Now Nicomachus had a similar idea of the nature of multitude and number; they form a series, as it were a moving stream, which proceeds out of unity, the monad. Just as the point is not part of the line (for it is indimensional, and the line is defined as that which has one dimension), but is potentially a line, so the monad is not a part of multitude nor of number, though it is the beginning of both, and potentially both. The monad is unity, absence of multitude, potentiality; out of it the dyad first separates itself and 'goes forward' and then in succession follow the other numbers."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
1 (number)
35 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by 1 (number) →
Related Quotes
"Every quantity is recognized as quantity through the one, and that by which quantities are primarily known is the one…"
"More knowable than the number is the unit; for it is prior and the source of every number."
"We find also the Famous ', Mathematician to the Prince of Orange, having defined Number to be, That by which is expla…"
"What Science can be more accurate than Geometry? What Science can afford Principles more evident, more certain, yea I…"
"[A]s the great extreme of dimension is sublime, so the last extreme of littleness is in the same measure sublime... w…"
"Nicomachus gives three definitions of number. ...The third stream of quantity composed of units Philoponus explains a…"
"I will now say something which may perhaps astonish you; it refers to the possibility of dividing a line into its inf…"
"When do centuries end?—at the termination of years marked '99 (as common sensibility suggests), or at the termination…"
"We may... go to our... statement from Aristotle's treatise on the Pythagoreans, that according to them the universe d…"
"Things consisting of fewer Principles are more accurate, than those understood by Addition [of more principles], as A…"