He believed in the primacy of doubt, not as a blemish upon our ability to know, but as the essence of knowing.
James GleickWe say that time passes, time goes by, and time flows. Those are metaphors. We also think of time as a medium in which we exist.
James GleickWhen the Lilliputians first saw Gulliver's watch, that "wonderful kind of engine...a globe, half silver and half of some transparent metal," they identified it immediately as the god he worshiped. After all, "he seldom did anything without consulting it: he called it his oracle, and said it pointed out the time for every action in his life." To Jonathan Swift in 1726 that was worth a bit of satire. Modernity was under way. We're all Gullivers now. Or are we Yahoos?
James Gleick