Mathematics Quotes - Page 33

• It is impossible to discuss realism in logic without drawing in the empirical sciences... A truly realistic mathematics should be conceived, in line with physics, as a branch of the theoretical construction of the one real world and should adopt the same sober and cautious attitude toward hypothetic extensions of its foundation as is exhibited by physics.

  Hermann Weyl

  Attitude, Real, Drawing

  Hermann Weyl, Frank Wilczek (2009). “Philosophy of Mathematics and Natural Science”, p.235, Princeton University Press

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• There is a beauty in discovery. There is mathematics in music, a kinship of science and poetry in the description of nature, and exquisite form in a molecule. Attempts to place different disciplines in different camps are revealed as artificial in the face of the unity of knowledge. All literate men are sustained by the philosopher, the historian, the political analyst, the economist, the scientist, the poet, the artisan and the musician.

  Glenn T. Seaborg

  Men, Discovery, Discipline

  "Biographical Memoirs" edited by Darleane C. Hoffman, (p. 252), 2000.

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• Zero is powerful because it is infinity’s twin. They are equal and opposite, yin and
  yang. They are equally paradoxical and troubling. The biggest questions in science
  and religion are about nothingness and eternity, the void and the infinite, zero and
  infinity. The clashes over zero were the battles that shook the foundations of philosophy,
  of science, of mathematics, and of religion. Underneath every revolution lay a
  zero – and an infinity.

  Charles Seife

  Zero, Powerful, Philosophy

  Charles Seife (2000). “Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea”, p.2, Penguin

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• The so-called mysteries of quantum mechanics are in its philosophical interpretation, not in its mathematics.

  Victor J. Stenger

  Philosophical, Mystery, Mechanic

  Victor J. Stenger (2012). “God and the Folly of Faith: The Incompatibility of Science and Religion”, p.143, Prometheus Books

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• Algebraic geometry seems to have acquired the reputation of being esoteric, exclusive, and very abstract, with adherents who are secretly plotting to take over all the rest of mathematics. In one respect this last point is accurate.

  David Mumford

  Math, Lasts, Esoteric

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• A Noah's Ark of mathematicians, their lives, loves, hard times, and madnesses, Loving and Hating Mathematics shows our community with all its warts as well as its triumphs. I especially liked the chapter on much-hated school mathematics, 'Almost All Children Left Behind.'

  David Mumford

  Children, Hate, School

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• Certainly the best times were when I was alone with mathematics, free of ambition and pretense, and indifferent to the world.

  Robert Langlands

  Ambition, World, Indifferent

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• There is an
  underlying timelessness
  in the basic conversation
  that is mathematics.

  Barry Mazur

  Conversation, Timelessness

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• This is a wonderful book, unique and engaging. Diaconis and Graham manage to convey the awe and marvels of mathematics, and of magic tricks, especially those that depend fundamentally on mathematical ideas. They range over many delicious topics, giving us an enchanting personal view of the history and practice of magic, of mathematics, and of the fascinating connection between the two cultures. Magical Mathematics will have an utterly devoted readership.

  Barry Mazur

  Book, Unique, Views

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• For all the time schools devote to the teaching of mathematics, very little (if any) is spent trying to convey just what the subject is about. Instead, the focus is on learning and applying various procedures to solve math problems. That's a bit like explaining soccer by saying it is executing a series of maneuvers to get the ball into the goal. Both accurately describe various key features, but they miss the what and the why of the big picture.

  Keith Devlin

  Soccer, Teaching, School

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• The Mathematician's Shiva is a brilliant and compelling family saga full of warmth, pathos, history, and humor, not to mention a cast of delightfully quirky characters, and a math lesson or two; all together, a winning equation! When Rojstaczer writes about mathematics, you'd think he was writing about poetry.

  Jonathan Evison

  Writing, Character, Math

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• This is an extremely ambitious book. In addition to science and mathematics, Byers brings to bear insights from literature, philosophy, religion, history, anthropology, medicine, and psychology. The Blind Spot breaks new ground, and represents a major step forward in the philosophy of science. The book is also a page-turner, which is rare for this topic.

  Joseph Auslander

  Philosophy, Book, Blind Spots

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• He who does not understand the supreme certainty of mathematics is wallowing in confusion.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Confusion, Ontology, Doe

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• Inspiration is the impact of a fact on a well-prepared mind

  Louis Pasteur

  Education, Inspiration, Impact

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• The mathematics of quantum mechanics very accurately describes how our universe works. And it tells us our reality is continually branching into different possibilities, just like a coral.

  Antony Garrett Lisi

  Motivation, Inspiration, Reality

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• The power of mathematics is often to change one thing into another, to change geometry into language.

  Marcus du Sautoy

  Motivation, Inspiration, Language

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• Reading music is something that's inherently hateful to me. It makes music like mathematics.

  Robert Quine

  Reading, Hateful, Music Is

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• Atheism is the opium of the mathematicians. Atheism is the religion of Mathematics.

  Bill Gaede

  Atheist, Atheism, Mathematician

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• By simple mathematics giving is key to the world you seek to live in. If I take I alone gain. If I give or share then two at least are enriched.

  Rasheed Ogunlaru

  Simple, Keys, Two

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• Mathematics has beauty and romance. It's not a boring place to be, the mathematical world. It's an extraordinary place; it's worth spending time there.

  Marcus du Sautoy

  Romance, World, Boring

  "A prime example" by Karen Gold, www.theguardian.com. December 19, 2006.

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• Except in pure mathematics, nothing is known for certain (although much is certainly false).

  Carl Sagan

  Certain, Pure, Known

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.51, Ballantine Books

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• The fact that mathematics does such a good job of describing the Universe is a mystery that we don't understand. And a debt that we will probably never be able to repay.

  Lord Kelvin

  Jobs, Doe, Debt

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• When we talk about the impact inside mathematics, and applications in the sciences, [Mandelbrot] is one of the most important figures of the last 50 years.

  Heinz-Otto Peitgen

  Impact, Years, Important

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• Our federal income tax law defines the tax y to be paid in terms of the income x; it does so in a clumsy enough way by pasting several linear functions together, each valid in another interval or bracket of income. An archeologist who, five thousand years from now, shall unearth some of our income tax returns together with relics of engineering works and mathematical books, will probably date them a couple of centuries earlier, certainly before Galileo and Vieta.

  Hermann Weyl

  Couple, Book, Math

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• I have long admired Ron Whitehead. He is crazy as nine loons, and his poetry is a dazzling mix of folk wisdom and pure mathematics

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Crazy, Long, Nine

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