Famous quotes containing the words actual, infinity and/or distinction:
“Mathematics ... would certainly have not come into existence if one had known from the beginning that there was in nature no exactly straight line, no actual circle, no absolute magnitude.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The poetic notion of infinity is far greater than that which is sponsored by any creed.”
—Joseph Brodsky (b. 1940)
“There is a distinction to be drawn between true collectors and accumulators. Collectors are discriminating; accumulators act at random. The Collyer brothers, who died among the tons of newspapers and trash with which they filled every cubic foot of their house so that they could scarcely move, were a classic example of accumulators, but there are many of us whose houses are filled with all manner of things that we “can’t bear to throw away.””
—Russell Lynes (1910–1991)