“But there’s no story to be told about numbers, no narrative to be composed. That’s because numbers have no history. They neither come into existence nor go out; nor do they change. For some numbers it happens that they are discovered at a certain time; but the event of a number’s discovery is an item in the history of its discoverer, not in the history of the number. Its discovery makes no difference to the number; it represents no change in it.

When it comes to nonevents I propose that we take whether or not something has a history as the determinant of whether or not it is in time. What brings it about that you and I are in time? The fact that we each have a history; about each of us there’s a story that can be told, a narrative that can be composed. What brings it about that numbers are not in time—that they are timeless? The fact that none has a history.”