"The objection we are dealing with argues from the standpoint of an agent that presupposes time and acts in time, but did not institute time. Hence the question about 'why God's eternal will produces an effect now and and not earlier' presupposes that time exists; for 'now' and 'earlier' are segments of time. With regard to the universal production of things, among which time is also to be counted, we should not ask, 'Why now and not earlier?' Rather we should ask: 'Why did God wish this much time to intervene?' And this depends on the divine will, which is perfectly free to assign this or any other quantity to time. The same may be noted with respect to the dimensional quantity of the world. No one asks why God located the material world in such and such a place rather than higher up or lower down or in some other position; for there is no place outside the world. The fact that God portioned out so much quantity to the world that no part of it would be beyond the place occupied in some other locality, depends on the divine will. However, although there was no time prior to the world and no place outside the world, we speak as if there were. Thus we say that before the world existed there was nothing except God, and that there is no body lying outside the world. But in thus speaking of 'before' and 'outside,' we have in mind nothing but time and place as they exist in our imagination." (Thomas Aquinas, "Compendium Theologiae" ["Compendium of Theology"], cca. 1265 [unfinished])
"There is a very different relationship between [...] space and duration. For we do not ascribe various durations to the different parts of space, but say that all endure together. The moment of duration is the same at Rome and at London, on the Earth and on the stars, and throughout the heavens. And just as we understand any moment of duration to be diffused throughout all spaces, according to its kind, without any thought of its parts, so it is no more contradictory that Mind also, according to its kind, can be diffused through space without any thought of its parts." (Isaac Newton, De Gravitatione et Aequipondio Fluridorum, cca. 1664-1668)
"All our dignity consists of thought. It is from there that we must be lifted up and not from space and time, which we could never fill. So let us work on thinking well. That is the principle of morality." (Blaise Pascal, "Pensées", 1670)
"Not at all as far as its absolute, intrinsic nature is concerned. [,,,] Whether things run or stand still, whether we sleep or wake, time flows in its even tenor (aequo tenore tempus labitur). Even if all the stars would have remained at the places where they had been created, nothing would have been lost to time (nihil inde quicquam tempori decessisset). The temporal relations of earlier, afterwards, and simultaneity, even in that tranquil state, would have had their proper existence (prius, posterius, simul etiam in illo transquillo statu fuisset in se)." (Isaac Barrow, "Lectiones Geometricae", 1672)
"Just as space existed before the world was created and even now there exists an infinite space beyond the world (with which God coexists) [...] so time exists before the world and simultaneously with the world (prius mundo et simul cum mundo)." (Isaac Barrow, "Lectiones Geometricae", 1672)
"Time absolutely is quantity, admitting in some manner the chief affections of quantity, equality, inequality, and proportion; nor do I believe there is anyone but allows that those things existed equal times, which rose and perished simultaneously." (Isaac Barrow, "Lectiones Geometricae", 1672)
"Although time, space, place, and motion are very familiar to everyone, it must be noted that these quantities are popularly conceived solely with reference to the objects of sense perception." (Isaac Newton, "The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", 1687)
"To measure motion, space is as necessary to be considered as time....[They] are made use of to denote the position of finite: real beings, in respect one to another, in those infinite uniform oceans of duration and space." (John Locke, "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding", 1689)
"Although time, space, place, and motion are very familiar to everyone, it must be noted that these quantities are popularly conceived solely with reference to the objects of sense perception." (Isaac Newton, "The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", 1687)
"To measure motion, space is as necessary to be considered as time....[They] are made use of to denote the position of finite: real beings, in respect one to another, in those infinite uniform oceans of duration and space." (John Locke, "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding", 1689)
"If a plurality of states of things is assumed to exist which involves no opposition to each other, they are said to exist simultaneously. Thus we deny that what occurred last year and this year are simultaneous, for they involve incompatible states of the same thing. If one of two states which are not simultaneous involves a reason for the other, the former is held to be prior, the latter posterior. My earlier state involves a reason for the existence of my later state. And since my prior state, by reason of the connection between all things, involves the prior state of other things as well, it also involves a reason for the later state of these other things and is thus prior to them. Therefore whatever exists is either simultaneous with other existences or prior or posterior." (Gottfried W Leibniz, "Initium rerum Mathematicarum metaphysica", 1715)
"Time is the order of existence of those things which are not simultaneous. Thus time is the universal order of changes when we do not take into consideration the particular kinds of change. Duration is magnitude of time. If the magnitude of time is diminished uniformly and continuously, time disappears into moment, whose magnitude is zero. Space is the order of coexisting things, or the order of existence for things which are simultaneous." (Gottfried W Leibniz, "Initium rerum Mathematicarum metaphysica", 1715)
"Time, matter, space - all, it may be, are no more than a point." (Denis Diderot, "Lettre sur les aveugles", 1749)"Any point has a real mode of existence, through which it is where it is; & another, due to which it exists at the time when it does exist. These real modes of existence are to me real time & space ; the possibility of these modes, hazily apprehended by us, is, to my mind, empty space & again empty time, so to speak ; in other words, space & imaginary time." (Roger J Boscovich, "Philosophiae Naturalis Theoria Redacta Ad Unicam Legera Virium in Natura Existentium, 1758)
"Further we believe that GOD Himself is present everywhere throughout the whole of the undoubtedly divisible space that all bodies occupy; & yet He is onefold in the highest degree & admits not of any composite nature whatever. Moreover, the same idea seems to depend on an analogy between space & time. For, just as rest is a conjunction with a continuous series of all the instants In the interval of time during which the rest endures; so also this virtual extension is a conjunction of one instant of time with a continuous series of all the points of space throughout which this one-fold entity extends virtually. Hence, just as rest is believed to exist in Nature, so also are we bound to admit virtual extension; & if this is admitted, then it will be possible for the primary elements of matter to be simple, & yet not absolutely non-extended." (Roger J Boscovich, "Philosophiae Naturalis Theoria Redacta Ad Unicam Legera Virium in Natura Existentium, 1758)
"Nature is the system of laws established by the Creator for the existence of things and for the succession of creatures. Nature is not a thing, because this thing would be everything. Nature is not a creature, because this creature would be God. But one can consider it as an immense vital power, which encompasses all, which animates all, and which, subordinated to the power of the first Being, has begun to act only by his order, and still acts only by his concourse or consent. […] Time, space and matter are its means, the universe its object, motion and life its goal." (Georges-Louis L de Buffon, "Histoire Naturelle, Générale et Particulière, Avec la Description du Cabinet du Roi", 1764)
"Nature is the system of laws established by the Creator for the existence of things and for the succession of creatures. Nature is not a thing, because this thing would be everything. Nature is not a creature, because this creature would be God. But one can consider it as an immense vital power, which encompasses all, which animates all, and which, subordinated to the power of the first Being, has begun to act only by his order, and still acts only by his concourse or consent. […] Time, space and matter are its means, the universe its object, motion and life its goal." (Georges-Louis L de Buffon, "Histoire Naturelle, Générale et Particulière, Avec la Description du Cabinet du Roi", 1764)
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