Euclid (ca. 300 BC) Elements, Book I, Common Notions 5.
“

And the whole [is] greater than the part.

— Euclid on Geometry

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "And the whole [is] greater than the part." in the context of "Euclid (ca. 300 BC) Elements, Book I, Common Notions 5." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Geometry" (Quotes: Quotes are arranged alphabetically by author, D - L) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Euclid

About Euclid

Euclid (Greek: Εὐκλείδης), also known as Euclid of Alexandria, was a Greek mathematician, often referred to as the "founder of geometry" or the "father of geometry". He was active in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy I (323–283 BC). His Elements is one of the most influential works in the history of mathematics, serving as the main textbook for teaching mathematics (especially geometry) from the time of its publication until the late 19th or early 20th century. In the Elements, Euclid deduced the theorems of what is now called Euclidean geometry from a small set of axioms. Euclid also wrote works on perspective, conic sections, spherical geometry, number theory, and mathematical rigour.