Calculus Quotes

• God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically.

  Albert Einstein

  Motivational, God, Math

  "Quest: An Autobiography". Book by Leopold Infeld (p. 279), 1980.

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• Calculus is the most powerful weapon of thought yet devised by the wit of man.

  Wallace B. Smith

  Powerful, Math, Men

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• The calculus is the greatest aid we have to the application of physical truth in the broadest sense of the word.

  William Fogg Osgood

  Truth, Math, Statistics

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• The calculus was the first achievement of modern mathematics and it is difficult to overestimate its importance. I think it defines more unequivocally than anything else the inception of modern mathematics; and the system of mathematical analysis, which is its logical development, still constitutes the greatest technical advance in exact thinking.

  John von Neumann

  Teaching, Math, Thinking

  John Von Neumann, F. Bródy, Tibor Vámos (1995). “The Neumann Compendium”, p.620, World Scientific

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• Calculus works by making visible the infinitesimally small.

  Keith Devlin

  Ontology, Logic, Certainty

  Keith Devlin (2003). “Sets, Functions, and Logic: An Introduction to Abstract Mathematics, Third Edition”, p.7, CRC Press

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• The world is continuous, but the mind is discrete.

  David Mumford

  Mind, World, Statistics

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• Calculus required continuity, and continuity was supposed to require the infinitely little; but nobody could discover what the infinitely little might be.

  Bertrand Russell

  Math, Littles, Statistics

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays: Top Philosophy Collections”, p.51, 谷月社

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• Calculus destroys self-esteem on contact.

  James Lileks

  Self Esteem, Contact, Self

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• Who has not been amazed to learn that the function y = ex, like a phoenix rising from its own ashes, is its own derivative?

  Francois Le Lionnais

  Education, Learning, Phoenix

  François Le Lionnais (2004). “Great Currents of Mathematical Thought: Marthematics in the Arts and Sciences”, p.126, Courier Corporation

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• One good thing about teaching calculus is that you develop a hardened attitude towards repeating yourself.

  Philip J. Hanlon

  Attitude, Teaching, Statistics

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• Calculus is the outcome of a dramatic intellectual struggle which has lasted for twenty-five hundred years.

  Richard Courant

  Struggle, Years, Intellectual

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• In my free time I do differential and integral calculus.

  Karl Marx

  Mathematical, Integral Calculus, Free Time

  Karl Marx (1983). “Mathematical Manuscripts of Karl Marx”

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• The notion of infinity is our greatest friend; it is also the greatest enemy of our peace of mind.

  James Pierpont

  Education, Mind, Enemy

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• Calculus is one course you can come with to your parents and say, I am dropping it. And they'll understand.

  Bill Cosby

  Parent, Statistics, Dropping

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• In the fall of 1972, President Nixon announced that the rate of increase of inflation was decreasing. This was the first time a president used the third derivative to advance his case for reelection.

  Hugo Rossi

  Time, Fall, Math

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• God created infinity, and man, unable to understand infinity, had to invent finite sets.

  Gian-Carlo Rota

  Education, Men, Statistics

  Mark Kac, Gian-Carlo Rota, Jacob T. Schwartz (2009). “Discrete Thoughts: Essays on Mathematics, Science and Philosophy”, p.62, Springer Science & Business Media

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• The Mean Value Theorem is the midwife of calculus - not very important or glamorous by itself, but often helping to deliver other theorems that are of major significance.

  Edward Mills Purcell

  Education, Mean, Important

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• Calculus, the electrical battery, the telephone, the steam engine, the radio - all these groundbreaking innovations were hit upon by multiple inventors working in parallel with no knowledge of one another.

  Steven Johnson

  Innovation, Batteries, Radio

  "Kevin Kelly and Steven Johnson on Where Ideas Come From". www.wired.com. September 27, 2010.

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• This is a tricky domain because, unlike simple arithmetic, to solve a calculus problem - and in particular to perform integration - you have to be smart about which integration technique should be used: integration by partial fractions, integration by parts, and so on.

  Marvin Minsky

  Smart, Simple, Technique

  "AL's Legacy: 2001's Computer As Dream and Reality". Book by David G. Stork (p. 15), February 6, 1998.

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• But to us, probability is the very guide of life.

  Joseph Butler

  Life, Statistics, Guides

  'The Analogy of Religion' (1736) 'Introduction'

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• With an absurd oversimplification, the 'invention' of the calculus is sometimes ascribed to two men, Newton and Leibniz. In reality, the calculus is the product of a long evolution that was neither initiated nor terminated by Newton and Leibniz, but in which both played a decisive part.

  Richard Courant

  Education, Reality, Men

  Richard Courant, Herbert Robbins (1979). “What is mathematics?: an elementary approach to ideas and methods”, Oxford University Press, USA

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• I never failed in mathematics. Before I was fifteen I had mastered differential and integral calculus.

  Albert Einstein

  Fifteen, Mathematics, Differential Calculus

  "Greatest Living Mathematician Failed in Mathematics" in "Ripley's Believe It or Not!", 1935.

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• And what are these fluxions? The velocities of evanescent increments. And what are these same evanescent increments? They are neither finite quantities, nor quantities infinitely small, nor yet nothing. May we not call them the ghosts of departed quantities...?

  George Berkeley

  Math, Departed, May

  George Berkeley (1871). “The Works of George Berkeley: Miscellaneous works. Index, v.1-3”, p.283

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• We need to raise the level of our game in terms of explaining the planetary warming by infrared absorption of CO2 etc. The missing area of understanding seems to be the actual physical mechanism. Lets target an explanation at an audience that has taken 1 year each of undergraduate physics and chemistry, plus calculus. Once we have something that is convincing at this level, we can work on how to communicate this to the interested public (i.e. those that hang out in the climate blogosphere). Willis Eschenbach’s help is needed in translating this for the WUWT crowd.

  Judith Curry

  Taken, Years, Games

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• Ambition without knowledge is like a boat on dry land -movie - Karate kid"What is the calculus of innovation?" "The calculus of innovation is really quite simple: knowledge drives innovation, innovation drives productivity, productivity drives our economic growth."

  William R. Brody

  Ambition, Kids, Simple

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