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Full Idea
Everything which is known has number, because otherwise it is impossible for anything to be the object of thought or knowledge.
Gist of Idea
Everything must involve numbers, or it couldn't be thought about or known
Source
Philolaus (On the Cosmos (lost) [c.435 BCE], B04), quoted by John Stobaeus - Anthology 1.21.7b
Book Ref
'The First Philosophers', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP 2000], p.111
| 1787 | Philolaus was the first person to say the earth moves in a circle [Philolaus, by Diog. Laertius] |
| 469 | Existing things, and hence the Cosmos, are a mixture of the Limited and the Unlimited [Philolaus] |
| 1518 | Everything must involve numbers, or it couldn't be thought about or known [Philolaus] |
| 1519 | Harmony must pre-exist the cosmos, to bring the dissimilar sources together [Philolaus] |
| 473 | There is no falsehood in harmony and number, only in irrational things [Philolaus] |
| 472 | No things would be clear to us as entity or relationships unless there existed Number and its essence [Philolaus] |
| 476 | Self-created numbers make the universe stable [Philolaus] |