Mathematics Quotes - Page 5

• It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Mistake, Math, Science

  "A Scandal in Bohemia" (1891)

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• Few men speak humbly of humility, chastely of chastity, skeptically of skepticism.

  Blaise Pascal

  Humility, Pride, Math

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• Mathematics is being lazy. Mathematics is letting the principles do the work for you so that you do not have to do the work for yourself

  George Polya

  Hard Work, Science, Lazy

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• Mathematics has the completely false reputation of yielding infallible conclusions. Its infallibility is nothing but identity. Two times two is not four, but it is just two times two, and that is what we call four for short. But four is nothing new at all. And thus it goes on and on in its conclusions, except that in the higher formulas the identity fades out of sight.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Math, Two, Sight

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• Mathematics is the Life of the Gods.

  Novalis

  Life, Math, God Life

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• Mathematics is an interesting intellectual sport but it should not be allowed to stand in the way of obtaining sensible information about physical processes.

  Richard Hamming

  Sports, Interesting, Intellectual

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• The progress of mathematics can be viewed as progress from the infinite to the finite.

  Gian-Carlo Rota

  Science, Progress, Infinite

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• Imagine a person with a gift of ridicule [He might say] First that a negative quantity has no logarithm; secondly that a negative quantity has no square root; thirdly that the first non-existent is to the second as the circumference of a circle is to the diameter.

  Augustus De Morgan

  Squares, Circles, Roots

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• Still more astonishing is that world of rigorous fantasy which we call mathematics.

  Gregory Bateson

  Math, World, Fantasy

  "Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology".

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• I am acutely aware of the fact that the marriage between mathematics and physics, which was so enormously fruitful in past centuries, has recently ended in divorce.

  Freeman Dyson

  Marriage, Divorce, Math

  Freeman J. Dyson (1996). “Selected Papers of Freeman Dyson with Commentary”, p.169, American Mathematical Soc.

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• Mathematics may be defined as the economy of counting. There is no problem in the whole of mathematics which cannot be solved by direct counting.

  Ernst Mach

  Math, May, Problem

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• It is always the case, with mathematics, that a little direct experience of thinking over things on your own can provide a much deeper understanding than merely reading about them.

  Roger Penrose

  Reading, Thinking, Understanding

  Roger Penrose (2016). “The Road To Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe”, p.20, Random House

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• It is the simple hypotheses of which one must be most wary; because these are the ones that have the most chances of passing unnoticed.

  Henri Poincare

  Simple, Chance, Passing

  "Thermodynamique: Leçons professées pendant le premier semestre 1888 - 1889". Preface to the book by Henri Poincare, 1892.

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• I would advise you, Sir, to study algebra, if you are not an adept already in it: your head would get less muddy, and you will leave off tormenting your neighbours about paper and packthread, while we all live together in a world that is bursting with sin and sorrow.

  Samuel Johnson

  Sorrow, Together, Would Be

  "Johnsoniana, Or, Supplement to Boswell: Being Anecdotes and Sayings of Dr. Johnson".

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• I believe there are 15, 747, 724, 136, 275, 002, 577, 605, 653, 961, 181, 555, 468, 044, 717, 914, 527, 116, 709, 366, 231, 425, 076, 185, 631, 031, 296 protons in the universe and the same number of electrons.

  Arthur Eddington

  Believe, Numbers, Mathematical

  1938 Tarner Lecture.

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• The Theory of Groups is a branch of mathematics in which one does something to something and then compares the result with the result obtained from doing the same thing to something else, or something else to the same thing.

  James R Newman

  Math, Branches, Groups

  James R. Newman (1956). “The World of Mathematics”, p.1534, Рипол Классик

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• Mathematics is man's own handiwork, subject only to the limitations imposed by the laws of thought.

  Edward Kasner

  Math, Men, Law

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• "I think you're begging the question," said Haydock, "and I can see looming ahead one of those terrible exercises in probability where six men have white hats and six men have black hats and you have to work it out by mathematics how likely it is that the hats will get mixed up and in what proportion. If you start thinking about things like that, you would go round the bend. Let me assure you of that!"

  Agatha Christie

  Math, Exercise, Men

  Agatha Christie (1980). “Five complete Miss Marple novels”, Random House Value Publishing

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• It can be of no practical use to know that Pi is irrational, but if we can know, it surely would be intolerable not to know.

  Edward Charles Titchmarsh

  Education, Math, Would Be

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• I don't agree with mathematics; the sum total of zeros is a frightening figure.

  Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

  Math, Figures, Agree

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• To speak freely of mathematics, I find it the highest exercise of the spirit; but at the same time I know that it is so useless that I make little distinction between a man who is only a mathematician and a common artisan. Also, I call it the most beautiful profession in the world; but it is only a profession.

  Blaise Pascal

  Beautiful, Exercise, Men

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• Mathematics is distinguished from all other sciences except only ethics, in standing in no need of ethics.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Math, Needs, Ethics

  Charles Sanders Peirce (1933). “Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce: Exact logic (Published papers).. The Simplest mathematics”, Harvard University Press

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• Mathematics is the bold luxury of pure reason, one of the few that remain today.

  Robert Musil

  Luxury, Today, Reason

  Robert Musil, Burton Pike, David S. Luft (1995). “Precision and Soul: Essays and Addresses”, p.41, University of Chicago Press

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• Mathematics is not something that you find lying around in your back yard. It's produced by the human mind. Yet if we ask where mathematics works best, it is in areas like particle physics and astrophysics, areas of fundamental science that are very, very far removed from everyday affairs.

  Paul Davies

  Lying, Everyday, Mind

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• To arrive at the simplest truth, as Newton knew and practiced, requires years of contemplation. Not activity Not reasoning. Not calculating. Not busy behaviour of any kind. Not reading. Not talking. Not making an effort. Not thinking. Simply bearing in mind what it is one needs to know.

  George Spencer-Brown

  Reading, Math, Thinking

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