Edwin A. Abbott

lesson self-contend vile ignorant aspire happy

“...learn this lesson, that to be self-contented is to be vile and ignorant, and that to aspire is better than to be blindly and impotently happy..”

― Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926)

creature point universe length breadth height flatland

“Behold yon miserable creature. That Point is a Being like ourselves, but confined to the non-dimensional Gulf. He is himself his own World, his own Universe; of any other than himself he can form no conception; he knows not Length, nor Breadth, nor Height, for he has had no experience of them; he has no cognizance even of the number Two; nor has he a thought of Plurality, for he is himself his One and All, being really Nothing. Yet mark his perfect self-contentment, and hence learn this lesson, that to be self-contented is to be vile and ignorant, and that to aspire is better than to be blindly and impotently happy.”

― Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926)

great art defy tyrant time

“Like all great art, it defies the tyrant Time.”

― Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926)

Flatland dimensions one two point line square cube

“In One Dimensions, did not a moving Point produce a Line with two terminal points?

In two Dimensions, did not a moving Line produce a Square wit four terminal points?

In Three Dimensions, did not a moving Square produce - did not the eyes of mine behold it - that blessed being, a Cube, with eight terminal points?

And in Four Dimensions, shall not a moving Cube - alas, for Analogy, and alas for the Progress of Truth if it be not so - shall not, I say the motion of a divine Cube result in a still more divine organization with sixteen terminal points?

Behold the infallible confirmation of the Series, 2, 4, 8, 16: is not this a Geometrical Progression? Is not this - if I might qupte my Lord's own words - "Strictly according to Analogy"?

Again, was I not taught by my Lord that as in a Line there are two bonding points, and in a Square there are four bounding Lines, so in a Cube there must be six bounding Squares? Behold once more the confirming Series: 2, 4, 6: is not this an Arithmetical Progression? And consequently does it not of necessity follow that the more divine offspring of the divine Cube in the Land of Four Dimensions, must have eight bounding Cubes: and is not this also, as my Lord has taught me to believe, "strictly according to analogy"?”

― Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926)

madness hell knowledge dimensions

“Either this is madness or it is Hell.” “It is neither,” calmly replied the voice of the Sphere, “it is Knowledge; it is Three Dimensions: open your eye once again and try to look steadily.”

― Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926)

life irregular hard

“Doubtless, the life of an Irregular is hard; but the interests of the Greater Number require that it shall be hard.”

― Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926)

Flatland fill space think utter hear thought word happiness

“It fills all Space, and what It fills, It is. What It thinks, that It utters; and what It utters, that It hears; and It itself is Thinker, Utterer, Hearer, Thought, Word, Audition; it is the One, and yet the All in All. Ah, the happiness, ah, the happiness of Being!”

― Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926)

attend configuration

“Attend to your Configuration.”

― Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926)

Flatland pointed triangle soldier women needle

“If our highly pointed triangles of the soldier class are formidable, it may be readily inferred that far more formidable are our women. For if a soldier is a wedge, a women is a needle; being, so to speak, all point, at least at the two extremities. Add to this the power of making herself practically invisible at will, and you will perceive that a female, in Flatland, is a creature by no means to be trifled with.”

― Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926)

Flatland rule father son square pentagon polygon

“It is a Law of Nature with us that a male child shall have one more side than his father, so that each generation shall rise (as a rule) one step in the scale of development and nobility. Thus the son of a Square is a Pentagon; the son of a Pentagon, a Hexagon; and so on.”

― Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926)

Flatlandcomport polygonial society

“To comport oneself with perfect propriety in Polygonal society, one ought to be a Polygon oneself.”

― Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926)

Flatland paradox geometric moral irregular

“There are not wanting, it is true, some promulgators of paradoxes who maintain that there is no necessary connection between geometrical and moral Irregularity.”

― Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926)

Flatland see angles infer precision

"Though we cannot SEE angles, we can INFER them, and this with great precision. Our sense of touch, stimulated by necessity, and developed by long training, enables us to distinguish angles far more accurately than your sense of sight, when unaided by a rule or measure of angles."

― Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926)

Flatland woman children husband exterminate

"I have actually known a case where a Woman has exterminated her whole household, and half an hour afterwards, when her rage was over and the fragments swept away, has asked what has become of her husband and her children."

― Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926)