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Frequently nowadays the use of highly sophisticated computers involves the 'selling' of time on them. In the Middle Ages this practice would have been severely frowned upon by the Church, for one of its main objections to the practice of usury was that it contravened natural law by 'selling time', and in its view time necessarily belongs to all creatures.

— Gerald James Whitrow Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day (1988)

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More quotes by Gerald James Whitrow

Perhaps the first to approach the fourth dimension from the side of physics, was the Frenchman, Nicole Oresme, of the fourteenth century.

He uses the phrase "fourth dimension" (4am dimensionem).

It must have required enormous effort for man to overcome his natural tendency to live like the animals in a continual present.

Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day (1988)

The absence of free mobility in time makes it much more difficult for us to be sure that a process takes the same time whenever it is repeated.

Natural Philosophy of Time (1980)

Man must have been conscious of memories and purposes long before he made any explicit distinction between past, present, and future.

Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day (1988)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Gerald James Whitrow (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.