William Rowan Hamilton

“In fact it seems to me that the science of algebra may be called the science of pure time.”

“Here at last I had the ring of truth.”

“I have been struck by the fact that all plain sailing is in old grooves.”

“The intuitions of time and space are the two fundamental notions which are the subject matter of the two fundamental sciences, algebra and geometry.”

“Thought is only a flash between two long nights, but this flash is everything.”

“To be a discoverer, you must be a poet.”

“Time is said to have only one dimension, and space to have three dimensions... The mathematical science of time is algebra, of space, geometry.”

“Who would not rather have the fame of Archimedes than that of his conqueror Marcellus?”

“Truth and utility are not hostile powers. They are related to each other as the foundation and the superstructure of the same edifice.”

“An equation is the memorial of a discovery.”

“Metaphysics is the science of the immutable relations of existence.”