Prior to 1800

It is clear that there is some difference between ends: some ends are energeia [energy], while others are products which are additional to the energeia.

Aristotle, Greek philosopher, the first to describe the concept of energy (ca. 325 BC; energeia has traditionally been translated as activity or actuality ; some modern texts render it more literally as in work or being at work .)

Give me a lever and a place to stand, and I can move the whole world.

Archimedes, Greek mathematician and engineer (attributed, ca. 250 BC; quoted in later sources).

To the north lies Georgia, near the confines of which there is a fountain of oil which discharges so great a quantity as to furnish loads for many camels. The use made of it is not for the purpose of food, but as an unguent for the cure of cutaneous distempers in men and cattle and it is also good for burning.

Marco Polo, Venetian merchant and travel author (ca. 1291 AD).

E pur (Eppur) si muove. ( And yet, it moves or Nevertheless, it does move. )

Galileo Galilei, Italian scientist (attributed, ca. 1633; referring to the motion of the earth around the sun, in contrast with Church teaching of the time which held that the earth was stationary. Galileo is said to have uttered this in secret after he was publicly forced to renounce Copernican theory).

Energie is the operation, efflux or activity...