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- Euripides gave Socrates a copy of Heraclitus' book and asked him what he thought of it; Socrates replied: "What I understand is good; and I think that what I don't understand is good too- but it would take a Delian diver to get to the bottom of it."
-Diogenes Laertius
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- Gold was the pursuit of all the alchemists. It was the one perfect metal, they held, all others being inferior. But since gold itself was basically composed of the same elements as the lesser metals, there must be something, they argued, many times more perfect than gold which entered into its composition. Therefore, this unknown substance was the chief object of their search. If found, they believed, it could be mixed with any of the other metals in proper proportion, drive out all their imperfections and turn them into gold. This mysterious substance was named by the Arabs, el iksir.
-Charles Earle Funk,
Thereby Hangs a Tale
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