"We know next to nothing with any certainty about Pythagoras, except that he was not really called Pythagoras. The name by which he is known to us was probably a nickname bestowed by his followers. According to one source, it meant â€˜He who spoke truth like an oracleâ€™. Rather than entrust his mathematical and philosophical ideas to paper, Pythagoras is said to have expounded them before large crowds. The worldâ€™s most famous mathematician was also its first rhetorician."

-- Daniel Tammet

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