“To quote the words of Timaeus, in Plato, "What is that which always is, and has no birth, and what is that which is always becoming but never is? The one is apprehended by the mental processes, with reasoning, and is ever the same; the other can be guessed at by opinion in company with unreasoning sense, a thing which becomes and passes away, but never really is."
Therefore, if we crave for the goal which is worthy and fitting for man, namely happiness of life—and this is accomplished by philosophy alone and nothing else, and philosophy means… for us desire for wisdom, and wisdom the science of the truth of things… it is reasonable and most necessary to distinguish and systematize the accidental qualities of things.”

—  Nicomachus

Nicomachus of Gerasa: Introduction to Arithmetic (1926)

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Ancient Greek mathematician 60–120

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