Mathematical Quotes - Page 19

• If "Number rules the universe" as Pythagoras asserted, Number is merely our delegate to the throne, for we rule Number.

  Eric Temple Bell

  Math, Numbers, Thrones

  Eric Temple Bell (1945). “Men of Mathematics”

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• Teaching school is but another word for sure and not very slow destruction.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Teaching, School, Math

  Thomas Carlyle (1886). “Early Letters”, p.281, Georg Olms Verlag

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• When writing about transcendental issues, be transcendentally clear.

  Rene Descartes

  Writing, Math, Issues

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• Gauss replied, when asked how soon he expected to reach certain mathematical conclusions, that he had them long ago, all he was worrying about was how to reach them!

  Rene Dubos

  Math, Long Ago, Worry

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• This has been done elegantly by Minkowski; but chalk is cheaper than grey matter, and we will do it as it comes.

  Albert Einstein

  Math, Grey Matter, Done

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• What is this frog and mouse battle among the mathematicians?

  Albert Einstein

  Math, Battle, Frogs

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• Raffiniert ist der Herr Gott, aber boshaft ist er nicht. God is subtle, but he is not malicious.

  Albert Einstein

  Science, Subtle, Malicious

  Remark made at Princeton University, c.9 May 1921, in R. W. Clark 'Einstein' (1973) ch. 14

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• To your care and recommendation am I indebted for having replaced a half-blind mathematician with a mathematician with both eyes, which will especially please the anatomical members of my Academy.

  Frederick The Great

  Eye, Math, Half

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• A scientist can hardly meet with anything more undesirable than to have the foundations give way just as the work is finished. I was put in this position by a letter from Mr. Bertrand Russell when the work was nearly through the press.

  Gottlob Frege

  Math, Giving, Foundation

  Note in the appendix of "Grundlagen der Arithmetik" (Vol. 2), after Frege had received a letter of Bertrand Russell in which Russell had explained his discovery of, what is now known as, Russell's paradox, 1903.

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• [Statistics are] the only tools by which an opening can be cut through the formidable thicket of difficulties that bars the path of those who pursue the Science of Man.

  Francis Galton

  Cutting, Math, Men

  Natural Inheritance Normal Variability (pp. 62-3)

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• I am coming more and more to the conviction that the necessity of our geometry cannot be demonstrated, at least neither by, nor for, the human intellect. . . Geometry should be ranked, not with arithmetic, which is purely aprioristic, but with mechanics.

  Carl Friedrich Gauss

  Math, Science, Mechanic

  "Solid Shape". Book by Jan J. Koenderink, 1990.

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• I don't believe in natural science.

  Kurt Gödel

  Believe, Math, Natural

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• I remember one occasion when I tried to add a little seasoning to a review, but I wasn't allowed to. The paper was by Dorothy Maharam, and it was a perfectly sound contribution to abstract measure theory. The domains of the underlying measures were not sets but elements of more general Boolean algebras, and their range consisted not of positive numbers but of certain abstract equivalence classes. My proposed first sentence was: "The author discusses valueless measures in pointless spaces."

  Paul Halmos

  Math, Class, Numbers

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• ...he seemed to approach the grave as an hyperbolic curve approaches a line, less directly as he got nearer, till it was doubtful if he would ever reach it at all.

  Thomas Hardy

  Math, Curves, Lines

  Thomas Hardy (2016). “Far from the Madding Crowd: Works of Hardy”, p.66, 谷月社

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• ...to characterize the import of pure geometry, we might use the standard form of a movie-disclaimer: No portrayal of the characteristics of geometrical figures or of the spatial properties of relationships of actual bodies is intended, and any similarities between the primitive concepts and their customary geometrical connotations are purely coincidental.

  Carl Gustav Hempel

  Math, Might Use, Body

  Carl Gustav Hempel (2001). “The Philosophy of Carl G. Hempel: Studies in Science, Explanation, and Rationality”, p.24, Oxford University Press on Demand

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• I have tried to avoid long numerical computations, thereby following Riemann's postulate that proofs should be given through ideas and not voluminous computations.

  David Hilbert

  Math, Ideas, Long

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• We [he and Halmos] share a philosophy about linear algebra: we think basis-free, we write basis-free , but when the chips are down we close the office door and compute with matrices like fury.

  Irving Kaplansky

  Philosophy, Writing, Thinking

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  Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Funny, Witty

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• Sometimes a good idea comes to you when you are not looking for it. Through an improbable combination of coincidence, naivete and lucky mistakes.

  Kary Mullis

  Mistake, Science, Ideas

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  The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Life, Friendship

  Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.331, Princeton University Press

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• I never did very well in math - I could never seem to persuade the teacher that I hadn't meant my answers literally.

  Calvin Trillin

  Teacher, Teaching, School

  Calvin Trillin (1988). “If you can't say something nice”, Penguin Group USA

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• Imagination is more important than knowledge.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Positive, Leadership

  Albert Einstein (2015). “Bite-Size Einstein: Quotations on Just About Everything from the Greatest Mind of the Twentieth Century”, p.32, St. Martin's Press

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• Mathematics knows no races or geographic boundaries; for mathematics, the cultural world is one country.

  David Hilbert

  Country, Math, Race

  "Mathematical Circles Revisited". Book by Howard Whitley Eves, 1971.

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• A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems.

  Paul Erdos

  Witty, Humorous, Coffee

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  A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator, the smaller the fraction.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Math, Men, Thinking

  graf Leo Tolstoy (2006). “Leo Tolstoy: Spiritual Writings”

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