Math Education Quotes

• I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

  Confucius

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

  336 Copy quote

• It is the duty of all teachers, and of teachers of mathematics in particular, to expose their students to problems much more than to facts.

  Paul Halmos

  Teacher, Teaching, Knowledge

  Paul Richard Halmos (1983). “Selecta: expository writing”, Springer Verlag

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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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• It is clear that the chief end of mathematical study must be to make the students think.

  John Wesley Young

  Math, Thinking, Students

  John Wesley Young, William Wells Denton, Ulysses Grant Mitchell (1930). “Lectures on fundamental concepts of algebra and geometry”

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• Mathematics is a more powerful instrument of knowledge than any other that has been bequeathed to us by human agency.

  Rene Descartes

  Powerful, Knowledge, Math

  RENE DESCARTES (1952). “RULES FOR THE DIRECTION OF THE MIND DISCOURSE ON THE METHOD MEDITATIONS ON FIRST PHILOSOPHY OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE MEDITATIONS AND REPLIES THE GEOMETRY”

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• I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Education, Appreciation

  84 Copy quote
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  It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Dance, Education

  Albert Einstein (2015). “Bite-Size Einstein: Quotations on Just About Everything from the Greatest Mind of the Twentieth Century”, p.52, St. Martin's Press

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• If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.

  John von Neumann

  Believe, Math, Simple

  John von Neumann's remarks as keynote speaker at the first national meeting of the Association for Computing Machinery (1947) as quoted in "Archaeology of computers: Reminiscences, 1945-1947" by Franz L. Alt, Communications of the ACM, Volume 15, Issue 7, special issue: Twenty-fifth anniversary of the Association for Computing Machinery (p. 694), July 1972.

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• I am too good for philosophy and not good enough for physics. Mathematics is in between.

  George Polya

  Philosophy, Math, Not Good Enough

  8 Copy quote

• Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do.

  Donald Knuth

  Art, Math, Science

  Foreword to the book "A=B" by Marko Petkovsek, Herbert S. Wilf and Doron Zeilberger, 1996.

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• Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

  Albert Einstein (2015). “Bite-Size Einstein: Quotations on Just About Everything from the Greatest Mind of the Twentieth Century”, p.31, St. Martin's Press

  120 Copy quote

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• Where there is matter, there is geometry.

  Johannes Kepler

  Math, Science, Matter

  126 Copy quote

• In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something else.

  Lee Iacocca

  Inspirational, Thank You, Education

  16 Copy quote

• Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics.

  G. H. Hardy

  Beauty, Math, Apology

  A Mathematician's Apology ch. 10 (1940)

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• The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful.

  Henri Poincare

  Beautiful, Math, Science

  Henri Poincare (2012). “The Value of Science: Essential Writings of Henri Poincare”, p.318, Modern Library

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• One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.

  Carl Jung

  Thank You, Education, Thankful

  Carl Gustav Jung (1970). “The development of personality”

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• In a completely rational society, the best of us would aspire to be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could have.

  Lee Iacocca

  Education, Teacher, Responsibility

  99 Copy quote

• The mathematician's patterns, like the painter's or the poet's, must be beautiful.

  G. H. Hardy

  Beautiful, Math, Patterns

  A Mathematician's Apology ch. 10 (1940)

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• Happiness is not so much in having as sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

  Norman MacEwen

  Inspirational, Life, Happiness

  83 Copy quote

• Mathematics rightly viewed possesses not only truth but supreme beauty.

  Bertrand Russell

  Math, Western Philosophy, Mathematics

  "The Study of Mathematics" (1902)

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• Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.

  Albert Einstein

  Motivational, Education, Freedom

  Albert Einstein (1970). “Out of my later years”, Greenwood Pub Group

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  We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

  Winston Churchill

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  303 Copy quote

• Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.

  Confucius

  Education, Wise, Clever

  Confucius (2014). “Confucian Analects”, p.9, Simon and Schuster

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• It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.

  Rene Descartes

  Inspirational, Education, Teaching

  "Discourse on the Method". Book by Rene Descartes (Part 1), 1637.

  383 Copy quote

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• Geometry is the science of correct reasoning on incorrect figures.

  George Polya

  Education, Math, Figures

  30 Copy quote