The Time Machine

Updated: January 3, 2023

The Time Machine is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells, published in 1895. It is considered one of the first stories to detail the concept of time travel in the science fiction genre and has had a significant impact in literature and popular culture.

Favorite quotes from the book:

There are really four dimensions, three which we call the three planes of Space, and a fourth, Time.

There is no difference between Time and any of the three dimensions of Space except that our consciousness moves along it.

You know how on a flat surface, which has only two dimensions, we can represent a figure of a three-dimensional solid, and similarly they think that by models of three dimensions they could represent one of four — if they could master the perspective of the thing.

We are always getting away from the present moment. Our mental existences, which are immaterial and have no dimensions, are passing along the Time-Dimension with a uniform velocity from the cradle to the grave.

But you are wrong to say that we cannot move about in Time. For instance, if I am recalling an incident very vividly I go back to the instant of its occurrence: I become absent-minded, as you say. I jump back for a moment.