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Quotes from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions — Edwin Abbott Abbott

1838–1926 England

← All quotes by Edwin Abbott Abbott

45 quotes

I declared that I could say nothing more, and that I must commit myself to the Truth, whose cause would surely prevail in the end.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)

I call our world Flatland, not because we call it so, but to make its nature clearer to you, my happy readers, who are privileged to live in Space.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)

'One touch of Nature makes all worlds akin.'

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)

As to the doctrine of the Circles it may briefly be summed up in a single maxim, "Attend to your Configuration."

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)

"Infinite beatitude of existence! It is; and there is none else beside It."

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)

"What," said I, "does the puny creature mean by 'it'?"

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)

"Distress not yourself if you cannot at first understand the deeper mysteries of Spaceland. By degrees they will dawn upon you.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)

Besotted Being! You think yourself the perfection of existence, while you are in reality the most imperfect and imbecile. You profess to see, whereas you can see nothing but a Point!

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)

I devoted several months in privacy to the composition of a treatise on the mysteries of Three Dimensions.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)

From dreams I proceed to facts.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)

"I see a fulfilment of the great Law of all worlds, that while the wisdom of Man thinks it is working one thing, the wisdom of Nature constrains it to work another, and quite a different and far better thing."

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)

The very fact that a Line is visible implies that it possesses yet another Dimension.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)

If our highly pointed Triangles of the Soldier class are formidable, it may be readily inferred that far more formidable are our Women.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)

Expediency therefore concurs with Nature in stamping the seal of its approval upon Regularity of conformation.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)

You could leave this Plane yourself, if you could but summon up the necessary volition. A slight upward or downward motion would enable you to see all that I can see.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)

You will, of course, say nothing of these trifles outside the Cabinet.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)

I could hear the mild voice of my Companion pointing the moral of my vision, and stimulating me to aspire, and to teach others to aspire.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)

I could see many of the younger Counsellors start back in manifest horror, as the Sphere's circular section widened before them.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)

That is the hope of my brighter moments. Alas, it is not always so.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)

Although I had less than a minute for reflection, I felt, by a kind of instinct, that I must conceal my experiences from my Wife.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Edwin Abbott Abbott (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.