quote · Legacy record
One might suppose that reality must be held to at all costs. However, though that may be the moral thing to do, it is not necessarily the most useful thing to do. The Greeks themselves chose the ideal over the real in their geometry and demonstrated very well that far more could be achieved by consideration of abstract line and form than by a study of the real lines and forms of the world; the greater understanding achieved through abstraction could be applied most usefully to the very reality that was ignored in the process of gaining knowledge.
One might suppose that reality must be held to at all costs. However, though that may be the moral thing to do, it is not necessarily the most useful thing to do. The Greeks themselves chose the ideal over the real in their geometry and demonstrated very well that far more could be achieved by consideration of abstract line and form than by a study of the real lines and forms of the world; the greater understanding achieved through abstraction could be applied most usefully to the very reality that was ignored in the process of gaining knowledge.
Approximate author period: c. 1956 AD · modern
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- Author or tradition
- Isaac Asimov
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1956 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1920 to 1992; Wikidata Q34981, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q34981 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 45850; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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