Mathematical Quotes - Page 6

• For the things of this world cannot be made known without a knowledge of mathematics.

  Roger Bacon

  Knowledge, Math, World

  Roger Bacon (2016). “Opus Majus, Volumes 1 and 2”, p.128, University of Pennsylvania Press

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• A good mathematical joke is better, and better mathematics, than a dozen mediocre papers.

  John Edensor Littlewood

  Math, Mediocrity, Paper

  John Edensor Littlewood, Béla Bollobás (1986). “Littlewood's Miscellany”, p.24, Cambridge University Press

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• Criticized for using formal mathematical manipulations, without understanding how they worked: Should I refuse a good dinner simply because I do not understand the process of digestion?

  Oliver Heaviside

  Understanding, Dinner, Digestion

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• The concept of number is the obvious distinction between the beast and man. Thanks to number, the cry becomes a song, noise acquires rhythm, the spring is transformed into a dance, force becomes dynamic, and outlines figures.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Song, Spring, Math

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• Neither you nor I nor anybody else knows what makes a mathematician tick. It is not a question of cleverness. I know many mathematicians who are far abler than I am, but they have not been so lucky. An illustration may be given by considering two miners. One may be an expert geologist, but he does not find the golden nuggets that the ignorant miner does.

  Louis J. Mordell

  Math, Two, Illustration

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• The good Christian should beware the mathematician and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of hell.

  Saint Augustine

  Inspirational, Life, Education

  "Mathematics in Western Culture". Book by Morris Kline, 1953.

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• The peculiar interest of magic squares and all lusus numerorum in general lies in the fact that they possess the charm of mystery. They appear to betray some hidden intelligence which by a preconceived plan produces the impression of intentional design, a phenomenon which finds its close analogue in nature.

  Paul Carus

  Lying, Squares, Design

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• Mathematics is the most exact science, and its conclusions are capable of absolute proof. But this is so only because mathematics does not attempt to draw absolute conclusions. All mathematical truths are relative, conditional. In E. T. Bell Men of Mathematics, New York: Simona and Schuster, 1937.

  Charles Proteus Steinmetz

  New York, Science, Men

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• Mathematics is a logical method. . . . Mathematical propositions express no thoughts. In life it is never a mathematical proposition which we need, but we use mathematical propositions only in order to infer from propositions which do not belong to mathematics to others which equally do not belong to mathematics.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Life, Math, Order

  Ludwig Wittgenstein, Charles Kay Ogden (1998). “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus”, p.98, Courier Corporation

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• How then shall mathematical concepts be judged? They shall not be judged. Mathematics is the supreme arbiter. From its decisions there is no appeal. We cannot change the rules of the game, we cannot ascertain whether the game is fair. We can only study the player at his game; not, however, with the detached attitude of a bystander, for we are watching our own minds at play.

  David van Dantzig

  Education, Attitude, Math

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• One factor that has remained constant through all the twists and turns of the history of physical science is the decisive importance of the mathematical imagination.

  Freeman Dyson

  Education, Science, Imagination

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• [On the Gaussian curve, remarked to Poincaré:] Experimentalists think that it is a mathematical theorem while the mathematicians believe it to be an experimental fact.

  Gabriel Lippmann

  Believe, Thinking, Curves

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

  James Clerk Maxwell

  Education, Math, Numbers

  "The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell".

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• Serious numbers will speak to us always.

  Paul Simon

  Numbers, Serious, Speak

  Song: When Numbers Get Serious, Album: Hearts and Bones

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• Every dimension is special.

  Jeffrey Lagarias

  Special, Dimensions, Mathematics

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

  Joseph Fourier

  Teaching, Math, Discovery

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

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• It is interesting thus to follow the intellectual truths of analysis in the phenomena of nature. This correspondence, of which the system of the world will offer us numerous examples, makes one of the greatest charms attached to mathematical speculations.

  Pierre-Simon Laplace

  Science, Law, Interesting

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• If a lunatic scribbles a jumble of mathematical symbols it does not follow that the writing means anything merely because to the inexpert eye it is indistinguishable from higher mathematics.

  Eric Temple Bell

  Writing, Mean, Eye

  Eric Temple Bell (1945). “Men of Mathematics”

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• A time will however come (as I believe) when physiology will invade and destroy mathematical physics, as the latter has destroyed geometry.

  John B. S. Haldane

  Time, Believe, Math

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• ...from the time of Kepler to that of Newton, and from Newton to Hartley, not only all things in external nature, but the subtlest mysteries of life and organization, and even of the intellect and moral being, were conjured within the magic circle of mathematical formulae.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Life, Circles, Organization

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1848). “Hints towards the formation of a more comprehensive theory of life”, p.31

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• Mathematical economics is old enough to be respectable, but not all economists respect it. It has powerful supporters and impressive testimonials, yet many capable economists deny that mathematics, except as a shorthand or expository device, can be applied to economic reasoning. There have even been rumors that mathematics is used in economics (and in other social sciences) either for the deliberate purpose of mystification or to confer dignity upon common places as French was once used in diplomatic communications.

  James R Newman

  Respect, Powerful, Communication

  "The World of Mathematics".

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• Suppose that you want to teach the 'cat' concept to a very young child. Do you explain that a cat is a relatively small, primarily carnivorous mammal with retractible claws, a distinctive sonic output, etc.? I'll bet not. You probably show the kid a lot of different cats, saying 'kitty' each time, until it gets the idea. To put it more generally, generalizations are best made by abstraction from experience.

  Ralph P. Boas, Jr.

  Children, Cat, Kids

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• My special pleasure in mathematics rested particularly on its purely speculative part.

  Bernard Bolzano

  Special, Pleasure, Mathematics

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• First, it is necessary to study the facts, to multiply the number of observations, and then later to search for formulas that connect them so as thus to discern the particular laws governing a certain class of phenomena. In general, it is not until after these particular laws have been established that one can expect to discover and articulate the more general laws that complete theories by bringing a multitude of apparently very diverse phenomena together under a single governing principle.

  Augustin-Louis Cauchy

  Numbers, Law, Class

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• Nothing has afforded me so convincing a proof of the unity of the Deity as these purely mental conceptions of numerical and mathematical science which have been by slow degrees vouchsafed to man, and are still granted in these latter times by the Differential Calculus, now superseded by the Higher Algebra, all of which must have existed in that sublimely omniscient Mind from eternity.

  Mary Somerville

  Math, Men, Unity

  Kathryn A. Neeley, Mary Somerville (2001). “Mary Somerville: Science, Illumination, and the Female Mind”, p.180, Cambridge University Press

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