Archimède Citations
Archimède: Citations en anglais
“I have found it! or I have got it!, commonly quoted as Eureka!”
What he exclaimed as he ran naked from his bath, realizing that by measuring the displacement of water an object produced, compared to its weight, he could measure its density (and thus determine the proportion of gold that was used in making a king's crown); as quoted by Vitruvius Pollio in De Architectura, ix.215;
Book 1, Propositions 6 & 7, The Law of the Lever.
On the Equilibrium of Planes
of the portion adjacent to the base
Proposition presumed from previous work.
The Method of Mechanical Theorems
Proprosition 4.
The Method of Mechanical Theorems
“Give me the place to stand, and I shall move the earth.”
δῶς[No omega+perispomene doric form per e.g. LSJ, March 2017] μοι πᾶ στῶ καὶ τὰν γᾶν κινάσω.
Dôs moi pâ stô, kaì tàn gân kinásō.
Said to be his assertion in demonstrating the principle of the lever; as quoted by Pappus of Alexandria, Synagoge, Book VIII, c. AD 340; also found in Chiliades (12th century) by John Tzetzes, II.130 http://books.google.com/books?id=dG0GAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA46. This and "Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the world" are the most commonly quoted translations.
Variant translations:
Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole world.
This variant derives from an earlier source than Pappus: The Library of History of Diodorus Siculus, Fragments of Book XXVI http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/26*.html, as translated by F. R. Walton, in Loeb Classical Library (1957) Vol. XI. In Doric Greek this may have originally been Πᾷ βῶ, καὶ χαριστίωνι τὰν γᾶν κινήσω πᾶσαν [Pā bō, kai kharistiōni tan gān kinēsō [variant kinasō] pāsan].
Give me a lever and a place to stand and I will move the earth.
Give me a fulcrum, and I shall move the world.
Give me a firm spot on which to stand, and I shall move the earth.
“The centre of gravity of a parallelogram is the point of intersection of its diagonals.”
Book 1, Proposition 10.
On the Equilibrium of Planes
“Do not disturb my circles!”
Noli turbare circulos meos. or Noli tangere circulos meos.
Original form: "noli … istum disturbare" ("Do not … disturb that (sand)") — Valerius Maximus, Memorable Doings and Sayings, Book VIII.7.ext.7 (See Chris Rorres (Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences) – "Death of Archimedesː Sources" http://www.math.nyu.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/Death/Histories.html). This quote survives only in its Latin version or translation. In modern era, it was paraphrased as Noli turbare circulos meos and then translated to Katharevousa Greek as "μὴ μου τοὺς κύκλους τάραττε".
Reportedly his last words, said to a Roman soldier who, despite being given orders not to, killed Archimedes during the conquest of Syracuse; as quoted in World Literature: An Anthology of Human Experience (1947) by Arthur Christy, p. 655.
“The centre of gravity of any cylinder is the point of bisection of the axis.”
Proposition presumed from previous work.
The Method of Mechanical Theorems
