John Stuart Mill, An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy (1865) as quoted in 5th ed. (1878) p. 617.

[T]he application of algebra to geometry... far more than any of his metaphysical speculations, has immortalized the name of Descartes, and constitutes the greatest single step ever made in the progress of the exact sciences.

— John Stuart Mill on History of science

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "[T]he application of algebra to geometry... far more than any of his metaphysical speculations, has immortalized the name of Descartes, and constitutes the greatest single step ever made in the progress of the exact sciences." in the context of "John Stuart Mill, An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy (1865) as quoted in 5th ed. (1878) p. 617." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Quote Image
Source: Wikiquote: "History of science" (Quotes: listed alphabetically by author, M-N) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
John Stuart Mill

About John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 8 May 1873), also known as J. S. Mill, was an English political philosopher and economist who was an advocate of utilitarianism.