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Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.

Elbert Hubbard, 1908; often credited to Hypatia

Philosophy

The story behind the card

Hypatia of Alexandria (died AD 415) was a mathematician, astronomer and philosopher, but none of her own words survive in ancient sources. This line comes from Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Teachers (1908), a series of lively, partly invented sketches by the American writer Elbert Hubbard. In his chapter on Hypatia, the words are spoken to her by her father Theon, the mathematician who taught her, as he warns her never to accept any religious system as final. Later quotation books dropped that frame and gave the line to Hypatia herself.

Türkçe oku
Düşünme hakkını elden bırakma; yanlış düşünmek bile hiç düşünmemekten iyidir.
Elbert Hubbard, 1908; çoğu zaman Hipatia'ya atfedilir

İskenderiyeli Hipatia (ölümü MS 415) matematikçi, gökbilimci ve filozoftu; ama antik kaynaklarda onun ağzından aktarılmış tek bir söz bile yoktur. Bu cümle, Amerikalı yazar Elbert Hubbard'ın 1908'de yayımladığı, kısmen hayal ürünü canlı portrelerden oluşan Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Teachers (Büyük Öğretmenlerin Evlerine Küçük Yolculuklar) dizisinden gelir. Hubbard'ın Hipatia bölümünde bu sözleri ona söyleyen, onu yetiştiren matematikçi babası Theon'dur; Theon kızını, hiçbir din sistemini son söz saymaması için uyarır. Sonraki alıntı kitapları bu çerçeveyi atıp sözü doğrudan Hipatia'ya mal etti.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Hypatia
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