Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.
In plain words
With the right tool, even one person can shift something enormous.
Where these words come from
- 93% sureThese words were traced back to where they first appeared. That source is listed below.
- Sourced to Pappus of Alexandria, Synagoge, Book VIII (c. AD 340)
- reported in Pappus of Alexandria's Synagoge (Bk. VIII) and Plutarch's Life of Marcellus
- c. 250 BC · Syracuse, Sicily · his boast to King Hiero about the power of levers — backed by hauling a loaded ship single-handed with pulleys
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