Kurt Gödel Quotes

• All generalisations - perhaps except this one - are false.

  Kurt Gödel

  Generalisation

  107 Copy quote

• Either mathematics is too big for the human mind or the human mind is more than a machine.

  Kurt Gödel

  Mind, Machines, Mathematics

  132 Copy quote

• The more I think about language, the more it amazes me that people ever understand each other at all.

  Kurt Gödel

  Thinking, People, Language

  148 Copy quote

• I don't believe in empirical science. I only believe in a priori truth.

  Kurt Gödel

  Believe, Don't Believe

  143 Copy quote

• I am convinced of the afterlife, independent of theology. If the world is rationally constructed, there must be an afterlife

  Kurt Gödel

  Independent, Afterlife, World

  116 Copy quote

• All generalizations, with the possible exception of this one, are false.

  Kurt Gödel

  Exception, Generalization

  65 Copy quote

• The meaning of world is the separation of wish and fact.

  Kurt Gödel

  Wish, World, Facts

  84 Copy quote

• I like Islam, it is a consistent idea of religion and open-minded.

  Kurt Gödel

  Ideas, Islam, Open Minded

  "A Logical Journey: From Gödel to Philosophy". Book by Hao Wang, 1996.

  111 Copy quote

• But every error is due to extraneous factors (such as emotion and education); reason itself does not err.

  Kurt Gödel

  Errors, Doe, Emotion

  47 Copy quote

• Nothing new had been done in Logic since Aristotle!

  Kurt Gödel

  Done, Logic, Nothing New

  46 Copy quote

• The development of mathematics toward greater precision has led, as is well known, to the formalization of large tracts of it, so that one can prove any theorem using nothing but a few mechanical rules... One might therefore conjecture that these axioms and rules of inference are sufficient to decide any mathematical question that can at all be formally expressed in these systems. It will be shown below that this is not the case, that on the contrary there are in the two systems mentioned relatively simple problems in the theory of integers that cannot be decided on the basis of the axioms.

  Kurt Gödel

  Simple, Two, Development

  "Kurt Gödel: Collected Works: Volume I: Publications 1929-1936".

  77 Copy quote

• ...a consistency proof for [any] system ... can be carried out only by means of modes of inference that are not formalized in the system ... itself.

  Kurt Gödel

  Mean, Math, Consistency

  55 Copy quote

• The formation in geological time of the human body by the laws of physics (or any other laws of similar nature), starting from a random distribution of elementary particles and the field is as unlikely as the separation of the atmosphere into its components. The complexity of the living things has to be present within the material, from which they are derived, or in the laws, governing their formation.

  Kurt Gödel

  Law, Atmosphere, Body

  "Nature's Imagination". Book by J. Cornwall, p.161-189, 1995.

  65 Copy quote

• The physical laws, in their observable consequences, have a finite limit of precision.

  Kurt Gödel

  Law, Limits, Precision

  39 Copy quote

• Ninety percent of [contemporary philosophers] see their principle task as that of beating religion out of men's heads. ... We are far from being able to provide scientific basis for the theological world view.

  Kurt Gödel

  Men, Views, Principles

  "Logical Dilemmas: The Life and Work of Kurt Gödel". Book by John W. Dawson Jr., 1997.

  33 Copy quote

• I don't believe in natural science.

  Kurt Gödel

  Believe, Math, Natural

  36 Copy quote

• The axiomatic method is very powerful

  Kurt Gödel

  Powerful, Method, Very Powerful

  44 Copy quote

• The development of mathematics towards greater precision has led, as is well known, to the formalization of large tracts of it, so that one can prove any theorem using nothing but a few mechanical rules.

  Kurt Gödel

  Development, Well Known, Mathematics

  Kurt Gödel, S. Feferman (1986). “Kurt Gödel: Collected Works: Volume I: Publications 1929-1936”, p.145, Oxford University Press

  35 Copy quote

• Said to physicist John Bahcall. I don't believe in natural science.

  Kurt Gödel

  Believe, Belief, Natural

  23 Copy quote

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