Said to be a remark made to his servant when a student asked what he would get out of studying geometry.
'threepence' renders τριώβολον "three-obol-piece". This amount increases the sarcasm of Euclid's reply, as it was the standard fee of a Dikastes for attending a court case (μίσθος δικαστικός), thus inverting the role of teacher and pupil to that of accused and juror.
The English translation is by The History of Greek Mathematics by Thomas Little Heath (1921), p. 357 http://books.google.com/books?id=h4JsAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA357#v=onepage&q&f=false. The quote is recorded by Stobaeus' Florilegium iv, 114 ( ed. Teubner 1856 http://www.archive.org/stream/iohannisstobaei00meingoog#page/n598/mode/2up, p. 205; see also here http://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.ch/2011/04/anecdote-about-euclid.html). Stobaeus attributes the anecdote to Serenus.
Attributed
Δός αὐτῷ τριώβολον, ἐπειδὴ δεῖ αὐτῷ ἐξ ὧν μανθάνει κερδαίνειν
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”
Journal excerpt from Shadow of the Almighty (1989) by Elisabeth Elliot, Jim Elliot, 1949
This quote is a paraphrase of Elliot's from the original quote (below) by English nonconformist clergyman Philip Henry (1631-1696)
Misattributed
Source: His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife (1997), Ch. 8 : The Tower of the Angels
The Dagger with Wings (1926)
Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from "Journey to Ixtlan" (Chapter 8)
Part III : Selection on Education from Kant's other Writings, Ch. I Pedagogical Fragments, # 3
The Educational Theory of Immanuel Kant (1904)
Context: The child must be brought up free (that he allow others to be free). He must learn to endure the restraint to which freedom subjects itself for its own preservation (experience no subordination to his command). Thus he must be disciplined. This precedes instruction. Training must continue without interruption. He must learn to do without things and to be cheerful about it. He must not be obliged to dissimulate, he must acquire immediate horror of lies, must learn so to respect the rights of men that they become an insurmountable wall for him. His instruction must be more negative. He must not learn religion before he knows morality. He must be refined, but not spoiled (pampered). He must learn to speak frankly, and must assume no false shame. Before adolescence he must not learn fine manners; thoroughness is the chief thing. Thus he is crude longer, but earlier useful and capable.
“He had gained all the power he had dreamed of then—and had not known a moment of peace since.”
Source: She Is the Darkness (1997), Chapter 5 (p. 288)
