Date: 1807

"The formalism of such a 'Philosophy of Nature' teaches, say, that the Understanding is Electricity, or the Animal is Nitrogen, or that they are the equivalent of the South or North Pole, etc., or represent it."

— Hegel, G. W. F. (1770-1831)

Date: 1805-6, published 1833-6

"It would make no difference if there had been no Reason there, just as with physicists it is a matter of perfect indifference whether, for instance, there is such a thing as magnetism or not."

— Hegel, G. W. F. (1770-1831)

Date: 1841

"It is the solar system of the mind."

— Marx, Karl (1818-1883)

Date: 2001

"At any rate, said Austerlitz, Gerald then moved from Cambridge to continue his work at an astrophysics research institute in Geneva, where I visited him several times, and as we walked out of the city together and along the banks of the lake I observed the way his ideas, like the stars themselve...

— Sebald, W. G. (1944-2001)