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Hypatia: Synesius, you don't question what you believe, or cannot. I must.
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Hypatia: [Looks up at night sky] If I could just unravel this just a little bit more, and just get a little closer to the answer, then... Then I would go to my grave a happy woman.
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Heladius Dignitary: The majority of us here... have accepted Christ. Why not the rest of you? It's only a matter of time and you know it.
Hypatia: Really? It is just a matter of time?... As far as I am aware, your God has not yet proved himself to be more just or more merciful than his predecessors. Is it really just a matter of time before I accept your faith?
Heladius Dignitary: Why should this assembly accept the council of someone who admittedly believes in absolutely nothing?
Hypatia: I believe in philosophy.
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Hypatia: Ever since Plato, all of them - Aristarchus, Hipparchus, Ptolemy - they have all, all, all tried to reconcile their observations with circular orbits. But what if another shape is hiding in the heavens?
Davus: Another shape? Lady, there is no shape more pure than the circle; you taught us that.
Hypatia: I know, I know, but suppose - just suppose! - the purity of the circle has blinded us from seeing anything beyond it! I must begin all over with new eyes. I must rethink everything!... What if we dared to look at the world just as it is. Let us shed for a moment every preconceived idea - what shape would it show us?
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Davus: I was forgiven but now I can't forgive.
Ammonius: Forgive? Who the Jews?
Davus: Well Jesus pardoned them on the cross.
Agora Quotes
Extended Reading
