In fact, how many theorems in geometry which have seemed at first…

In fact, how many theorems in geometry which have seemed at first impracticable are in time successfully worked out!

Source foundPerseveranceScienceAncient

In plain words

Problems that look impossible at first often get solved. It just takes time and many tries.

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How sure this is: 95% sureThese words were traced back to where they first appeared. That source is listed below.
What turned up: On Spirals, preface (letter to Dositheus), c. 225 BC; trans. T. L. Heath, The Works of Archimedes (1897), p. 151.
Work: On Spirals, preface (letter to Dositheus); trans. T. L. Heath, 1897
Occasion: c. 225 BC · Syracuse, Sicily · from his letter explaining why he waited years before publishing proofs of his hardest theorems
Sources checked: archive.orgChecked using claude-fable-5, 22 August 2026Full djvu text read this pass; verbatim incl. the opening 'In fact,' which Wikiquote's rendering drops (popular form noted here per exact-words law). Continuation (Conon's death, the unstirred problems) elaborates, no reversal.

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