Math Quotes - Page 5

• The union of the mathematician with the poet, fervor with measure, passion with correctness, this surely is the ideal.

  William James

  Passion, Unions, Poet

  William James (1987). “Essays, Comments, and Reviews”, p.356, Harvard University Press

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• Indeed, nowadays no electrical engineer could get along without complex numbers, and neither could anyone working in aerodynamics or fluid dynamics.

  Keith Devlin

  Teaching, Aerodynamics, Numbers

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• The profound study of nature is the most fertile source of mathematical discovery.

  Joseph Fourier

  Teaching, Discovery, Profound

  Joseph Fourier (2007). “The Analytical Theory of Heat (Unabridged)”, p.7, Cosimo, Inc.

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• In the mathematics I can report no deficience, except that it be that men do not sufficiently understand the excellent use of the pure mathematics, in that they do remedy and cure many defects in the wit and faculties intellectual. For if the wit be too dull, they sharpen it; if too wandering, they fix it; if too inherent in the sense, they abstract it.

  Roger Bacon

  Men, Intellectual, Use

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• I feign no hypotheses.

  Isaac Newton

  Mathematics, Hypothesis, Mathematical

  Isaac Newton (2004). “Isaac Newton: Philosophical Writings”, p.25, Cambridge University Press

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• One of the big misapprehensions about mathematics that we perpetrate in our classrooms is that the teacher always seems to know the answer to any problem that is discussed.

  Leon Henkin

  Teacher, Answers, Logic

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• The fact is there are few more popular subjects than mathematics. Most people have some appreciation of mathematics, just as most people can enjoy a pleasant tune.

  G. H. Hardy

  Appreciation, People, Facts

  G. H. Hardy (1992). “A Mathematician's Apology”, p.86, Cambridge University Press

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• In order to solve this differential equation you look at it until a solution occurs to you.

  George Polya

  Order, Looks, Subconscious

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• Nature's great book is written in mathematics.

  Galileo Galilei

  Book, Science, World

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• There is an astonishing imagination, even in the science of mathematics.

  Voltaire

  Science, Imagination, Astonishing

  Voltaire (2016). “Voltaire – The Philosophical Works: Treatise On Tolerance, Philosophical Dictionary, Candide, Letters on England, Plato’s Dream, Dialogues, The Study of Nature, Ancient Faith and Fable, Zadig…: From the French writer, historian and philosopher, famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion and freedom of expression”, p.1187, e-artnow

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• I can see so far because I stood on the shoulders of giants.

  Isaac Newton

  Giants, Shoulders, I Can

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• Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I can bear it.

  Walt Whitman

  Leaves Of Grass, Bears, Contradiction

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• What is the difference between method and device? A method is a device which you use twice.

  George Polya

  Differences, Use, Method

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• The two operations of our understanding, intuition and deduction, on which alone we have said we must rely in the acquisition of knowledge.

  Rene Descartes

  Two, Understanding, Intuition

  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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• You know we all became mathematicians for the same reason: we were lazy.

  Maxwell Rosenlicht

  Lazy, Laziness, Reason

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• The science of pure mathematics, in its modern developments, may claim to be the most original creation of the human spirit.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Development, May, Spirit

  Science and the ModernWorld ch. 2 (1925)

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

  George Polya

  Philosophy, Not Good Enough, Physics

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• A mathematician's reputation rests on the number of bad proofs he has given.

  Abram Samoilovitch Besicovitch

  Numbers, Reputation, Proof

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• Proof is an idol before which the mathematician tortures himself.

  Arthur Eddington

  Education, Knowledge, Idols

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• Mechanics is the paradise of the mathematical sciences because by means of it one comes to the fruits of mathematics.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Mean, Science, Paradise

  Leonardo da Vinci (2008). “Notebooks”, p.10, OUP Oxford

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• What science can there be more noble, more excellent, more useful for men, more admirably high and demonstrative, than this of mathematics?

  Benjamin Franklin

  Education, Science, Men

  Benjamin Franklin, Jared Sparks (1836). “Works: containing several political and historical tracts not included in any former edition ...”, p.69

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• All the mathematical sciences are founded on relations between physical laws and laws of numbers.

  James Clerk Maxwell

  Education, Numbers, Law

  "The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell".

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• "The most powerful single idea in mathematics is the notion of a variable."

  Alexander Dewdney

  Education, Powerful, Ideas

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• Algebra is generous; she often gives more than is asked of her.

  Jean le Rond d'Alembert

  Giving, Algebra, Generous

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• Mathematics is the handwriting on the human consciousness of the very Spirit of Life itself.

  Claude Fayette Bragdon

  Handwriting, Spirit, Consciousness

  Claude Fayette Bragdon (2005). “Architecture and Democracy”, p.61, Cosimo, Inc.

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