The Lever
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Quotations






The engraving is from
Mechanic’s Magazine
(cover of bound Volume II,
Knight & Lacey, London, 1824)

Courtesy of the
 Annenberg Rare Book &
 Manuscript Library

 University of Pennsylvania
 Philadelphia, USA



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GIVE ME A PLACE TO STAND AND I WILL MOVE THE EARTH

A remark of Archimedes quoted by Pappus of Alexandria
Collection or Synagoge, Book VIII, c. AD 340
Greek text: Pappi Alexandrini Collectionis
Edited by Friedrich Otto Hultsch, Berlin, 1878 (see page 1060)



Following are some variations of the translation of Pappus’ Greek text into English . . .
“Give me a place to stand on, and I can move the earth.”
The Works of Archimedes with the Method of Archimedes, edited by T. L. Heath, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1953, p. xix.
“Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the earth.”
Archimedes, by E.J. Dijksterhuis, (translated from the Dutch by C. Dikshoorn), Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1987, p. 15.
“Give me somewhere to stand and I will move the earth.”
Greek Mathematical Works, by Ivor Thomas, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1941, vol. II, p. 35
“Give me where to stand, and I will move the earth.”
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, edited by Emily Morison Beck, Fourteenth Edition, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1968, p. 105.
“Give me but one firm spot on which to stand, and I will move the earth.”
The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, London, 1953, p. 14.



Wall painting in the Stanzino delle Matematiche in the Galleria degli Uffizi (Florence, Italy). Painted by Giulio Parigi (1571-1635) in the years 1599-1600.


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