Mathematical Quotes - Page 29

• 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

• The greatest reward lies in making the discovery; recognition can add little or nothing to that.

  Franz Ernst Neumann

  Lying, Math, Discovery

  5 Copy quote

• Algebra reverses the relative importance of the factors in ordinary language. It is essentially a written language, and it endeavors to exemplify in its written structures the patterns which it is its purpose to convey. The pattern of the marks on paper is a particular instance of the pattern to be conveyed to thought. The algebraic method is our best approach to the expression of necessity, by reason of its reduction of accident to the ghostlike character of the real variable.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Real, Character, Math

  4 Copy quote

• The theory of ramification is one of pure colligation, for it takes no account of magnitude or position; geometrical lines are used, but these have no more real bearing on the matter than those employed in genealogical tables have in explaining the laws of procreation.

  James Joseph Sylvester

  Real, Math, Law

  7 Copy quote

• We know next to nothing with any certainty about Pythagoras, except that he was not really called Pythagoras. The name by which he is known to us was probably a nickname bestowed by his followers. According to one source, it meant ‘He who spoke truth like an oracle’. Rather than entrust his mathematical and philosophical ideas to paper, Pythagoras is said to have expounded them before large crowds. The world’s most famous mathematician was also its first rhetorician.

  Daniel Tammet

  Philosophical, Names, Ideas

  7 Copy quote

• Like works of literature, mathematical ideas help expand our circle of empathy, liberating us from the tyranny of a single, parochial point of view. Numbers, properly considered, make us better people.

  Daniel Tammet

  Views, Circles, Ideas

  "Thinking in Numbers". Book by Daniel Tammet, 2012.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I believe sanity and realism can be restored to the teaching of Mathematical Statistics most easily and directly by entrusting such teaching largely to men and women who have had personal experience of research in the Natural Sciences.

  Ronald Fisher

  Believe, Teaching, Men

  16 Copy quote

• The analysis of variance is not a mathematical theorem, but rather a convenient method of arranging the arithmetic.

  Ronald Fisher

  Science, Pythagorean Theorem, Analysis

  "Statistics in agricultural research". Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 1934.

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• The numbers are a catalyst that can help turn raving madmen into polite humans.

  Philip J. Davis

  Math, Numbers, Helping

  Philip J. Davis, William G. Chinn (1985). “3.1416 and all that”, Birkhauser

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Mathematics is the supreme judge; from its decisions there is no appeal.

  Tobias Dantzig

  Math, Judging, Decision

  Tobias Dantzig (2005). “Number: The Language of Science”, Dutton Juvenile

  46 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sex is the mathematics urge sublimated.

  Michael C. Reed

  Sex, Math, Observation

  9 Copy quote

• Mathematics is a more powerful instrument of knowledge than any other that has been bequeathed to us by human agency.

  Rene Descartes

  Powerful, Knowledge, Math

  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”

  118 Copy quote

  Show source

• Logic doesn't apply to the real world.

  Marvin Minsky

  Real, Knowledge, Math

  11 Copy quote

• Although I am almost illiterate mathematically, I grasped very early in life that any one who can count to ten can count upward indefinitely if he is fool enough to do so.

  Robertson Davies

  Math, Fool, Enough

  Robertson Davies (1949). “The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks”, Clarke, Irwin

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The calculus is the greatest aid we have to the application of physical truth in the broadest sense of the word.

  William Fogg Osgood

  Truth, Math, Statistics

  23 Copy quote

• Mathematical discoveries, small or great are never born of spontaneous generation.

  Henri Poincare

  Discovery, Generations, Spontaneity

  22 Copy quote

• Calculus required continuity, and continuity was supposed to require the infinitely little; but nobody could discover what the infinitely little might be.

  Bertrand Russell

  Math, Littles, Statistics

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays: Top Philosophy Collections”, p.51, 谷月社

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Claude Fayette Bragdon

  Math, Handwriting, Spirit

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

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Mandelbrot set is the most complex mathematical object known to mankind.

  Benoit Mandelbrot

  Math, Mankind, Complexes

  6 Copy quote

• Mathematics is for lazy people.

  Peter Hilton

  Math, Lazy People, People

  7 Copy quote

• Thus we can get the correct answer for the probability of partial reflection by imagining (falsely) that all reflection comes from only the front and back surfaces. In this intuitively easy analysis, the 'front surface' and 'back surface' arrows are mathematical constructions that give us the right answer, whereas .... a more accurate representation of what is really going on: partial reflection is the scattering of light by electrons inside the glass.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Reflection, Arrows, Glasses

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  7 Copy quote

• Arithmetic is where numbers fly like pigeons in and out of your head.

  Carl Sandburg

  Math, Numbers, Pigeons

  Carl Sandburg, Frances Schoonmaker Bolin (1995). “Carl Sandburg”, p.17, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• I imagine that whenever the mind perceives a mathematical idea, it makes contact with Plato's world of mathematical concepts... When mathematicians communicate, this is made possible by each one having a direct route to truth, the consciousness of each being in a position to perceive mathematical truths directly, through the process of 'seeing'.

  Roger Penrose

  Plato, Ideas, Mind

  Roger Penrose (1999). “The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics”, p.554, OUP Oxford

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• Investment success cannot be captured in a mathematical equation or a computer program.

  Seth Klarman

  Investment Success, Mathematical Equations, Computer

  28 Copy quote