Quotations

Thales of Miletus

I will be sufficiently rewarded if when telling it to others you will not claim the discovery as your own, but will say it was mine.

Quoted in H Eves In Mathematical Circles (Boston 1969).

Water is the principle, or the element, of things. All things are water.

Quoted in Plutarch, Placita Philosophorum

I did not become a father because I am fond of children.

Quoted in Des MacHale, Wisdom (London, 2002).