Elemental Ideas From Ancient Times
People have known about some chemical elements like gold, silver and copper from antiquity, as these can all be discovered in nature in native form and are relatively simple to mine with primitive tools. However, the notion that there were a limited number of elements from which everything was composed originated with the Greek philosopher Aristotle. About 330 B.C Aristotle proposed that everything is made up of a mixture of one or more of four "roots" (originally put forth by the Sicilian philosopher Empedocles), but later renamed elements by Plato. The four elements were earth, water, air and fire. While the concept of an element was thus introduced, Aristotle's and Plato's ideas did nothing to advance the understanding of the nature of matter.
Read more about this topic: History Of The Periodic Table
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—Adolf Hitler (1889–1945)
“... we engage in politics because we don’t know anything. This is clearly revealed in the way we go about it. Our parties exist from a fear of theory. The voter fears that one idea can always be contradicted by another. Therefore the parties reciprocally defend themselves against the few old ideas they have inherited. They don’t live from what they promise, but from frustrating the promises of others. This is their silent community of interests.”
—Robert Musil (1880–1942)
“Here lies a man who was killed by lightning;
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—Anonymous. From Booth, Epigrams Ancient and Modern (1863)
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—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)