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How can a past idea be present?... it can only be going,…

Quote byCharles Sanders Peirce · 1839–1914

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Law of Mind (1892).

English (original)

How can a past idea be present?... it can only be going, infinitesimally past, less past than any assignable past date. We are thus brought to the conclusion that the present is connected to the past by a series of real infinitesimal steps.

— Charles Sanders Peirce

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