Studying Mathematics Quotes

• 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

  55 Copy quote

  Show source

• I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.

  John Adams

  Education, Philosophy, War

  John Adams (2003). “The Letters of John and Abigail Adams”, p.264, Penguin

  74 Copy quote

  Show source

• The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Disappointment, Math, Molecules

  Alfred North Whitehead (1958). “An Introduction to Mathematics”, p.1, New York : Oxford University Press, 1958 [c1948]

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• I tell them that if they will occupy themselves with the study of mathematics they will find in it the best remedy against the lusts of the flesh.

  Thomas Mann

  Math, Lust, Flesh

  Thomas Mann (1992). “The Magic Mountain”

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• There still remain three studies suitable for free man. Arithmetic is one of them.

  Plato

  Plato, Math, Men

  11 Copy quote

• The study of mathematics, like the Nile, begins in minuteness but ends in magnificence.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Math, Magnificence, Study

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.164

  39 Copy quote

  Show source

• If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics.

  Francis Bacon

  Science, Math, Men

  Francis Bacon, Basil Montagu (1821). “A critique of Bacon's "Novum Organum," by Basil Montagu, extracted from the Retrospective Review, 1821. Few MS. notes”, p.285

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Mathematicians do not study objects, but the relations between objects.

  Henri Poincare

  Study, Relation, Mathematician

  "The Value of Science: Essential Writings of Henri Poincare".

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• The mathematical facts worthy of being studied are those which, by their analogy with other facts, are capable of leading us to the knowledge of a physical law. They reveal the kinship between other facts, long known, but wrongly believed to be strangers to one another.

  Henri Poincare

  Leadership, Math, Law

  7 Copy quote

• If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again.

  Francis Bacon

  Math, Men, Littles

  Francis Bacon, Basil Montagu (1821). “A critique of Bacon's "Novum Organum," by Basil Montagu, extracted from the Retrospective Review, 1821. Few MS. notes”, p.285

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• The study of geometry is a petty and idle exercise of the mind, if it is applied to no larger system than the starry one. Mathematics should be mixed not only with physics but with ethics; that is mixed mathematics.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Exercise, Science, Mind

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “The Illustrated "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers"”, p.362, Princeton University Press

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment... We are told that by its aid the stars are weighed and the billions of molecules in a drop of water are counted. Yet, like the ghost of Hamlet's father, this great science eludes the efforts of our mental weapons to grasp it.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Stars, Disappointment, Father

  "An Introduction to Mathematics" by Alfred North Whitehead, Ch. 1, 1911.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• And believe me, if I were again beginning my studies, I should follow the advice of Plato and start with the mathematical sciences, which proceed very cautiously and admit nothing as established until it has been rigorously demonstrated.

  Galileo Galilei

  Education, Plato, Math

  "The Essential Galileo".

  52 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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".

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is a well-known experience that the only truly enjoyable and profitable way of studying mathematics is the method of "filling in details" by one's own efforts.

  Cornelius Lanczos

  Effort, Filling In, Way

  "Applied Analysis" by Cornelius Lanczos, Prentice-Hall, 1956.

  50 Copy quote

  Show source

• In studying mathematics or simply using a mathematical principle, if we get the wrong answer in sort of algebraic equation, we do not suddenly feel that there is an anti-mathematical principle that is luring us into the wrong answers.

  Eric Butterworth

  Math, Principles, Wrong Answers

  9 Copy quote

• Even when I was studying mathematics, physics, and computer science, it always seemed that the problem of consciousness was about the most interesting problem out there for science to come to grips with.

  David Chalmers

  Interesting, Study, Computer

  10 Copy quote

• Just by studying mathematics we can hope to make a guess at the kind of mathematics that will come into the physics of the future... If someone can hit on the right lines along which to make this development, it may lead to a future advance in which people will first discover the equations and then, after examining them, gradually learn how to apply them... My own belief is that this is a more likely line of progress than trying to guess at physical pictures.

  Paul Dirac

  Science, Discovery, People

  "The Evolution of the Physicist's Picture of Nature" by Paul Dirac, blogs.scientificamerican.com. May 1963.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Ada came from Lwów. She was a very good looking girl who was studying mathematics at the University of Geneva. For a few years I had an off-and-on romance with her.

  Stanislaw Ulam

  Girl, Years, Romance

  "Adventures of a Mathematician" by Stanislaw Ulam, Third Edition, (p. 45), 1991.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source