Frederick the Great, Letters of Voltaire and Frederick the Great (1927), translated by Richard Aldington, letter 221 from Frederick to Voltaire (25 November 1777)
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Euler calculated the force of the wheels necessary to raise the water in a reservoir … My mill was carried out geometrically and could not raise a drop of water fifty yards from the reservoir. Vanity of vanities! Vanity of geometry!
— Frederick the Great
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Euler calculated the force of the wheels necessary to raise the water in a reservoir … My mill was carried out geometrically and could not raise a drop of water fifty yards from the reservoir. Vanity of vanities! Vanity of geometry!" in the context of "Frederick the Great, Letters of Voltaire and Frederick the Great (1927), translated by Richard Aldington, letter 221 from Frederick to Voltaire (25 November 1777)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.
Source: Wikiquote: "Leonhard Euler" (Quotes about Euler: Alphabetized by author )
The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
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About Leonhard Euler
Leonhard Euler (15 April 1707 – 18 September 1783) was a Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer, geographer, logician, and engineer who founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made pioneering and influential discoveries in many other branches of mathematics such as analytic number theory, complex analysis, and infinitesimal calculus. He introduced much of modern mathematical terminology and notation, including the notion of a mathematical function. He is also known for his work in mechanics, fluid dynamics, optics, astronomy, and music theory. He is considered to be one of the greatest mathematicians of all time.
About Leonhard Euler
Leonhard Euler (15 April 1707 – 18 September 1783) was a Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer, geographer, logician, and engineer who founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made pioneering and influential discoveries in many other branches of mathematics such as analytic number theory, complex analysis, and infinitesimal calculus. He introduced much of modern mathematical terminology and notation, including the notion of a mathematical function. He is also known for his work in mechanics, fluid dynamics, optics, astronomy, and music theory. He is considered to be one of the greatest mathematicians of all time.
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