# On The Impossibility of Time Travel-Quote?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-impossibility-of-time-travel-quote/646214>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 6, 2013, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-impossibility-of-time-travel-quote/646214 "2013-01-06T00:56:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-impossibility-of-time-travel-quote/646214/1 "2013-01-06T00:56:08Z")

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I remember reading about intellectual objections to time travel-all of the paradoxes that would result if it was possible. At any rate, a 19th century French scientist said something like “the battle of Austerlitz has been fought, and will not be fought again”.  
I can’t remember where I read it…anybody know?

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**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-impossibility-of-time-travel-quote/646214/2 "2013-01-06T02:05:21Z")

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> [@ralph124c](#):
>
> I can’t remember where I read it..anybody know?

You’re _going to read it,_ sometime in 2014…

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**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-impossibility-of-time-travel-quote/646214/3 "2013-01-06T03:17:08Z")

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> [@ralph124c](#):
>
> I remember reading about intellectual objections to time travel-all of the paradoxes that would result if it was possible. At any rate, a 19th century French scientist said something like “the battle of Austerlitz has been fought, and will not be fought again”.  
> I can’t remember where I read it..anybody know?

I took a quick look through Paul Nahin’s “Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics and Science Fiction” which is quite thorough, and didn’t find anything helpful. There’s a famous hypothetical by Aristotle about a sea battle [Problem of future contingents - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_future_contingents), there’s Poincare’s concept of “eternal recurrence” [Eternal return - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_recurrence#Poincar.C3.A9_recurrence_theorem), but neither of those is quite what you’re looking for.