Paul Dirac Quotes About Mathematics

Quotes about: Mathematics

• 

  God used beautiful mathematics in creating the world.

  Paul Dirac

  Beautiful, God, Creating

  "The Cosmic Code: Quantum Physics As The Language Of Nature". Book by Heinz Pagels, p. 295, 1982.

• If you are receptive and humble, mathematics will lead you by the hand. Again and again, when I have been at a loss how to proceed, I have just had to wait until I have felt the mathematics led me by the hand. It has led me along an unexpected path, a path where new vistas open up, a path leading to new territory, where one can set up a base of operations, from which one can survey the surroundings and plan future progress.

  Paul Dirac

  Humble, Loss, Hands

  "The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom". Book by Graham Farmelo, 2009.

• Theoretical physicists accept the need for mathematical beauty as an act of faith... For example, the main reason why the theory of relativity is so universally accepted is its mathematical beauty.

  Paul Dirac

  Science, Example, Needs

• One could perhaps describe the situation by saying that God is a mathematician of a very high order, and He used very advanced mathematics in constructing the universe.

  Paul Dirac

  Order, Mathematics, Used

  "The Evolution of the Physicist's Picture of Nature" by Paul Dirac, blogs.scientificamerican.com. June 25, 2010.

• What makes the theory of relativity so acceptable to physicists in spite of its going against the principle of simplicity is its great mathematical beauty. This is a quality which cannot be defined, any more than beauty in art can be defined, but which people who study mathematics usually have no difficulty in appreciating.

  Paul Dirac

  Art, People, Appreciate

  Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (1995). “Sammlung”, p.908, Cambridge University Press

• If there is a God, he's a great mathematician.

  Paul Dirac

  Math, If There Is A God, Ifs

• Mathematics is the tool specially suited for dealing with abstract concepts of any kind and there is no limit to its power in this field.

  Paul Dirac

  Math, Power, Tools

  Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (1995). “Sammlung”, p.457, Cambridge University Press

• A good deal of my research in physics has consisted in not setting out to solve some particular problem, but simply examining mathematical equations of a kind that physicists use and trying to fit them together in an interesting way, regardless of any application that the work may have. It is simply a search for pretty mathematics. It may turn out later to have an application. Then one has good luck. At age 78.

  Paul Dirac

  Good Luck, Science, Mathematical Equations

• I think it is a peculiarity of myself that I like to play about with equations, just looking for beautiful mathematical relations which maybe don't have any physical meaning at all. Sometimes they do.
  At age 60.

  Paul Dirac

  Beautiful, Science, Thinking

  "Interview with Dr. P. A. M. Dirac" by Thomas S. Kuhn at Dirac's home, Cambridge, England, May 7, 1963.

• It was not until some weeks later that I realized there is no need to restrict oneself to 2 by 2 matrices. One could go on to 4 by 4 matrices, and the problem is then easily soluable. In retrospect, it seems strange that one can be so much held up over such an elementary point. The resulting wave equation for the electron turned out to be very successful. It led to correct values for the spin and the magnetic moment. This was quite unexpected. The work all followed from a study of pretty mathematics, without any thought being given to these physical properties of the electron.

  Paul Dirac

  Successful, Discovery, Goes On

• A great deal of my work is just playing with equations and seeing what they give.

  Paul Dirac

  Science, Giving, Biographies

  Howard Baer, Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, Alexander Belyaev (2003). “Proceedings of the Dirac Centennial Symposium: Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA, 6-7 December 2002”, p.45, World Scientific

• I learnt to distrust all physical concepts as the basis for a theory. Instead one should put one's trust in a mathematical scheme, even if the scheme does not appear at first sight to be connected with physics. One should concentrate on getting interesting mathematics.

  Paul Dirac

  Science, Sight, Interesting

• Just by studying mathematics we can hope to make a guess at the kind of mathematics that will come into the physics of the future... If someone can hit on the right lines along which to make this development, it may lead to a future advance in which people will first discover the equations and then, after examining them, gradually learn how to apply them... My own belief is that this is a more likely line of progress than trying to guess at physical pictures.

  Paul Dirac

  Science, Discovery, People

  "The Evolution of the Physicist's Picture of Nature" by Paul Dirac, blogs.scientificamerican.com. May 1963.

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin