On Spacetime (1800-1849)

"Is it not truly wonderful, that, in the constitution of the universe, time and space should every where be so happily combined, that notwithstanding the infinity of wheels and springs which mutually depend on each other, and which are all necessary to the play of the machine, the visible order of nature should, nevertheless, every where preserve the same air of simplicity aud uniformity." (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)

"Genius and science have burst the limits of space, and few observations, explained by just reasoning, have unveiled the mechanism of the universe. Would it not also be glorious for man to burst the limits of time, and, by a few observations, to ascertain the history of this world, and the series of events which preceded the birth of the human race?" (Georges Cuvier, "Essays on the Theory of the Earth", 1822)

"History in general is therefore the development of Spirit in Time, as Nature is the development of the Idea is Space." (Georg W F Hegel, "Lectures on the Philosophy of History", 1837)

"Yet time and space are but inverse measures of the force of the soul. The spirit sports with time." (Ralph W Emerson, "Essays", 1841)

"Great distance in either time or space has wonderful power to lull and render quiescent the human mind." (Abraham Lincoln, [An Address Delivered by Abraham Lincoln], 1842)

"Poetry is the universal art of the spirit which has become free in itself and which is not tied down for its realization to external sensuous material; instead, it launches out exclusively in the inner space and the inner time of ideas and feelings." (G W Friedrich Hegel, "Introduction to Aesthetics", 1842)

"Language has time as its element; all other media have space as their element." (Søren Kierkegaard, "Either/Or: A Fragment of Life", 1843)