Mathematical Quotes - Page 15

• Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom. I am not, as will be seen, in any sense attacking logic: I only say that this danger does lie in logic, not in imagination.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Lying, Science, Math

  Orthodoxy ch. 2 (1908)

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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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• The method of "postulating" what we want has many advantages; they are the same as the advantages of theft over honest toil.

  Bertrand Russell

  Honesty, Math, Toil

  Bertrand Russell (2007). “Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy”, p.71, Spokesman Books

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• Mathematics is the cheapest science. Unlike physics or chemistry, it does not require any expensive equipment. All one needs for mathematics is a pencil and paper.

  George Polya

  Science, Doe, Needs

  "Speaking of Science: Notable Quotes on Science, Engineering, and the Environment" by Jon Fripp, Michael Fripp, Deborah Fripp, Newnes (p. 45), 2000.

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• When introduced at the wrong time or place, good logic may be the worst enemy of good teaching.

  George Polya

  Teaching, Math, Science

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• In the company of friends, writers can discuss their books, economists the state of the economy, lawyers their latest cases, and businessmen their latest acquisitions, but mathematicians cannot discuss their mathematics at all. And the more profound their work, the less understandable it is.

  Alfred Adler

  Friendship, Book, Science

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• In [great mathematics] there is a very high degree of unexpectedness, combined with inevitability and economy.

  G. H. Hardy

  Degrees, Economy, Mathematics

  G. H. Hardy (2012). “A Mathematician's Apology”, p.113, Cambridge University Press

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• Mathematics is the tool specially suited for dealing with abstract concepts of any kind and there is no limit to its power in this field.

  Paul Dirac

  Math, Power, Tools

  Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (1995). “Sammlung”, p.457, Cambridge University Press

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• The fact that all Mathematics is Symbolic Logic is one of the greatest discoveries of our age; and when this fact has been established, the remainder of the principles of mathematics consists of the analysis of Symbolic Logic itself.

  Bertrand Russell

  Discovery, Mathematical Logic, Age

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Principles of Mathematics”, p.5, Routledge

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• The science of mathematics presents the most brilliant example of how pure reason may successfully enlarge its domain without the aid of experience

  Immanuel Kant

  Math, Science, Example

  Immanuel Kant (1881). “Critique of Pure Reason”

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• Theorems are fun especially when you are the prover, but then the pleasure fades. What keeps us going are the unsolved problems.

  Carl Pomerance

  Fun, Math, Science

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• ...the source of all great mathematics is the special case, the concrete example. It is frequent in mathematics that every instance of a concept of seemingly generality is, in essence, the same as a small and concrete special case.

  Paul Halmos

  Science, Essence, Special

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• I was x years old in the year x2.

  Augustus De Morgan

  Education, Math, Years

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• Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.

  Albert Einstein

  Motivational, Education, Freedom

  Albert Einstein (1970). “Out of my later years”, Greenwood Pub Group

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• There is something in statistics that makes it very similar to astrology.

  Gian-Carlo Rota

  Astrology, Statistics, Mathematics

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• I had a feeling once about mathematics - that I saw it all... but it was after dinner and I let it go.

  Winston Churchill

  Math, Feelings, Let It Go

  Winston Churchill (2010). “My Early Life: 1874-1904”, p.45, Simon and Schuster

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• The simple equations that generate the convoluted Mandelbrot fractal have been called the wittiest remarks ever made.

  John Allen Paulos

  Simple, Mathematics, Made

  John Allen Paulos (2008). “Once Upon A Number: The Hidden Mathematical Logic Of Stories”, p.61, Hachette UK

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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, Math, People

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

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• I think some intuition leaks out in every step of an induction proof.

  Jim Propp

  Thinking, Intuition, Steps

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• Induction makes you feel guilty for getting something out of nothing, and it is artificial, but it is one of the greatest ideas of civilization.

  Herbert Wilf

  Science, Civilization, Ideas

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• By relieving the brain of all unnecessary work, a good notation sets it free to concentrate on more advanced problems, and in effect increases the mental power of the race.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Learning, Race, Brain

  Alfred North Whitehead (1958). “An Introduction to Mathematics”, p.39, New York : Oxford University Press, 1958 [c1948]

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• It is more important that a proposition be interesting than that it be true. This statement is almost a tautology. For the energy of operation of a proposition in an occasion of experience is its interest and is its importance. But of course a true proposition is more apt to be interesting than a false one.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Math, Interesting, Important

  'Adventures of Ideas' (1933) pt. 4, ch. 16

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• The mathematician who pursues his studies without clear views of this matter, must often have the uncomfortable feeling that his paper and pencil surpass him in intelligence.

  Ernst Mach

  Math, Views, Uncomfortable Feeling

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• Such is the advantage of a well constructed language that its simplified notation often becomes the source of profound theories.

  Pierre-Simon Laplace

  Math, Profound, Language

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• MacPherson told me that my theorem can be viewed as blah blah blah Grothendieck blah blah blah, which makes it much more respectable.

  Jim Propp

  Mathematics, Blah, Respectable

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