Mathematical Quotes - Page 14

• No, it is a very interesting number, it is the smallest number expressible as a sum of two cubes in two different ways.

  Srinivasa Ramanujan

  Science, Two, Numbers

  Quoted in Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, 26 May 1921

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• In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it is the exact opposite.

  Paul Dirac

  Science, Opposites, People

  "Brighter Than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists". Book by by Robert Jungk, as translated by James Cleugh, p. 22, 1958.

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• I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam.

  Charles Babbage

  Math, Wish, Statistics

  Charles Babbage (2013). “On the Principles and Development of the Calculator and Other Seminal Writings”, p.14, Courier Corporation

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• Fundamental progress has to do with the reinterpretation of basic ideas.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Motivation, Ideas, Progress

  Alfred North Whitehead (2014). “Science and Philosophy”, p.142, Open Road Media

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• The chief aim of all investigations of the external world should be to discover the rational order and harmony which has been imposed on it by God and which He revealed to us in the language of mathematics.

  Johannes Kepler

  Math, Order, World

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• Sir, I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.

  Samuel Johnson

  Found You, Understanding, Statistics

  Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for June 1784)

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• The bitter and the sweet come from the outside, the hard from within, from one's own efforts.

  Albert Einstein

  Sweet, Math, Effort

  Albert Einstein (2011). “Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words”, p.8, Open Road Media

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• The world needs heroes and it's better they be harmless men like me than villains like Hitler

  Albert Einstein

  Sports, Hero, Men

  Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.480, Princeton University Press

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• 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

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• There is no national science, just as there is no national multiplication table; what is national is no longer science.

  Anton Chekhov

  Science, Tables, Mathematics

  Anton Chekhov (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Anton Chekhov (Illustrated)”, p.3760, Delphi Classics

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• There are three kinds of people: those who can count, and those who cannot.

  George Carlin

  Mathematical Logic, People, Three

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• About Newton: Nature to him was an open book, whose letters he could read without effort.

  Albert Einstein

  Book, Effort, Letters

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• The theory of numbers is particularly liable to the accusation that some of its problems are the wrong sort of questions to ask. I do not myself think the danger is serious; either a reasonable amount of concentration leads to new ideas or methods of obvious interest, or else one just leaves the problem alone. "Perfect numbers" certainly never did any good, but then they never did any particular harm.

  John Edensor Littlewood

  Math, Thinking, Numbers

  John Edensor Littlewood, Béla Bollobás (1986). “Littlewood's Miscellany”, p.74, Cambridge University Press

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• A great part of its theories derives an additional charm from the peculiarity that important propositions, with the impress of simplicity on them, are often easily discovered by induction, and yet are of so profound a character that we cannot find the demonstrations till after many vain attempts; and even then, when we do succeed, it is often by some tedious and artificial process, while the simple methods may long remain concealed.

  Carl Friedrich Gauss

  Success, Character, Simple

  "Mathematical Circles Adieu". Book by Howard W. Eves, 1977.

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• A good calculator does not need artificial aids.

  Laozi

  Math, Doe, Needs

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• How can it be that mathematics, being after all a product of human thought which is independent of experience, is so admirably appropriate to the objects of reality?

  Albert Einstein

  Independent, Science, Reality

  Albert Einstein, Stephen W. Hawking (2007). “A Stubbornly Persistent Illusion: The Essential Scientific Works of Albert Einstein”, p.249, Running Press

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• I am interested in mathematics only as a creative art.

  G. H. Hardy

  Art, Creativity, Creative

  G. H. Hardy, C. P. Snow (2012). “A Mathematician's Apology”, p.115, Cambridge University Press

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• Thou shalt not answer questionnaires Or quizzes upon world affairs, Nor with compliance Take any test. Thou shalt not sit with statisticians nor commit A social science.

  W. H. Auden

  Math, Tests, Answers

  W.H. Auden (2016). “Canción de cuna y otros poemas”, p.219, DEBOLS!LLO

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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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• Geometry enlightens the intellect and sets one's mind right. All of its proofs are very clear and orderly. It is hardly possible for errors to enter into geometrical reasoning, because it is well arranged and orderly. Thus, the mind that constantly applies itself to geometry is not likely to fall into error. In this convenient way, the person who knows geometry acquires intelligence.

  Ibn Khaldun

  Fall, Math, Errors

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• I confess that Fermat's Theorem as an isolated proposition has very little interest for me, because I could easily lay down a multitude of such propositions, which one could neither prove nor dispose of.

  Carl Friedrich Gauss

  Work, Littles, Interest

  "The World of Mathematics". Book by J. R. Newman, 1956.

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• We come now to the question: what is a priori certain or necessary, respectively in geometry (doctrine of space) or its foundations? Formerly we thought everything; nowadays we think nothing. Already the distance-concept is logically arbitrary; there need be no things that correspond to it, even approximately.

  Albert Einstein

  Distance, Math, Thinking

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• Mathematics is less related to accounting than it is to philosophy.

  Leonard Adleman

  Philosophy, Math, Science

  "SCIENTIST AT WORK: Leonard Adleman; Hitting the High Spots Of Computer Theory" by Gina Kolata, www.nytimes.com. 1994.

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• Math is the only place where truth and beauty mean the same thing.

  Danica McKellar

  Mean, Math, Science

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• "Can you do Addition?" the White Queen said. "What's one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one?" "I don't know," said Alice. "I lost count." "She can't do Addition," the Red Queen interrupted.

  Lewis Carroll

  Queens, Math, White

  Lewis Carroll (2015). “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Other Tales”, p.188, Race Point Pub

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