Applied Mathematics Quotes

• Programming is one of the most difficult branches of applied mathematics; the poorer mathematicians had better remain pure mathematicians.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Branches, Mathematics, Programming

  Edsger W. Dijkstra (2012). “Selected Writings on Computing: A personal Perspective”, p.129, Springer Science & Business Media

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• It was as though applied mathematics was my spouse, and pure mathematics was my secret lover.

  Edward Frenkel

  Secret Love, Lovers, Mathematics

  Edward Frenkel (2014). “Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality”, p.139, Basic Books

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• I count Maxwell and Einstein, Eddington and Dirac, among "real" mathematicians. The great modern achievements of applied mathematics have been in relativity and quantum mechanics, and these subjects are at present at any rate, almost as "useless" as the theory of numbers.

  G. H. Hardy

  Real, Science, Numbers

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• I do not think the division of the subject into two parts - into applied mathematics and experimental physics a good one, for natural philosophy without experiment is merely mathematical exercise, while experiment without mathematics will neither sufficiently discipline the mind or sufficiently extend our knowledge in a subject like physics.

  Balfour Stewart

  Philosophy, Exercise, Science

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• Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

  Albert Einstein

  Teaching, Math, Science

  "Obituary for Emmy Noether". Letter to the Editor of The New York Times, www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk. May 5, 1935.

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• There is no branch of mathematics, however abstract, which may not some day be applied to phenomena of the real world.

  Nikolai Lobachevsky

  Real, Math, Science

  "The Foundations of Geometry and the Non-Euclidean Plane". Book by George Edward Martin, 1975.

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• The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics.

  Paul Halmos

  Learning, Math, Way

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• Mathematics should be mixed not only with physics but with ethics.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Ethics, Morality, Physics

  Henry David Thoreau (1975). “Early Essays and Miscellanies”, p.362, Princeton University Press

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• The study of geometry is a petty and idle exercise of the mind, if it is applied to no larger system than the starry one. Mathematics should be mixed not only with physics but with ethics; that is mixed mathematics.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Exercise, Science, Mind

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “The Illustrated "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers"”, p.362, Princeton University Press

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• Applied mathematics will always need pure mathematics just as anteaters will always need ants.

  Paul Halmos

  Ants, Needs, Mathematics

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• Pure mathematics is on the whole distinctly more useful than applied... For what is useful above all is technique, and mathematical technique is taught mainly through pure mathematics.

  G. H. Hardy

  Sensual, Technique, Taught

  "A Mathematician's Apology". Book by G. H. Hardy, 1941.

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• It was all so very businesslike that one watched it fascinated. It was pork-making by machinery, pork-making by applied mathematics. And yet somehow the most matter-of-fact person could not help thinking of the hogs; they were so innocent, they came so very trustingly; and they were so very human in their protests - and so perfectly within their rights! They had done nothing to deserve it; and it was adding insult to injury, as the thing was done here, swinging them up in this cold-blooded, impersonal way, without pretence at apology, without the homage of a tear.

  Upton Sinclair

  Apology, Thinking, Insult To Injury

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• I was fortunate to find an extraordinary mathematics and applied mathematics program in Toronto.

  Walter Kohn

  Toronto, Mathematics, Program

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