Quotes · Quote card
Quotation from On the Magnet (De Magnete) by William Gilbert
“To those early forefathers of philosophy, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Ptolemy, Hippocrates, and Galen, let due honour be ever paid: for by them wisdom hath been diffused to posterity; but our age hath detected and brought to light very many facts which they, were they now alive, would gladly have accepted.”
On the Magnet (De Magnete), Preface to the Candid Reader, trans. Silvanus P. Thompson and the Gilbert Club
Gilbert honours the ancients while defending the freedom to correct them.
Citation: "To those early forefathers of philosophy, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Ptolemy, Hippocrates, and Galen, let due honour be ever paid: for by them wisdom hath been diffused to posterity; but our age hath detected and brought to light very many facts which they, were they now alive, would gladly have accepted." — William Gilbert, On the Magnet (De Magnete), Preface to the Candid Reader, trans. Silvanus P. Thompson and the Gilbert Club. (id gilbert-de-magnete-q3)
Portrait: William Gilbert, Unknown artist, Public domain.
