Theorems Quotes

• If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?

  Albert Einstein

  Love, Inspirational, Funny

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• If only I had the Theorems! Then I should find the proofs easily enough.

  Bernhard Riemann

  Easy, Enough, Mathematics

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• Young men should prove theorems, old men should write books.

  G. H. Hardy

  Book, Writing, Math

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• Any good theorem should have several proofs, the more the better.

  Michael Atiyah

  Should Have, Proof, Should

  "Interview with Michael Atiyah and Isadore Singer". Interview with Martin Raussen, Christian Skau, www.researchgate.net. February 2005.

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• We often hear that mathematics consists mainly of "proving theorems." Is a writer's job mainly that of "writing sentences?"

  Gian-Carlo Rota

  Jobs, Writing, Math

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• A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems.

  Paul Erdos

  Witty, Humorous, Coffee

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• A mathematician is a person who can find analogies between theorems; a better mathematician is one who can see analogies between proofs and the best mathematician can notice analogies between theories.

  Stefan Banach

  Analogies, Proof, Theory

  "Banach Spaces and Their Applications in Analysis: Proceedings of the International Conference at Miami University, May 22-27, 2006, in Honor of Nigel Kalton's 60th Birthday" by Beata Randrianantoanina, Narcisse Randrianantoanina, Walter de Gruyter, (p. 5), 2007.

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• There are three signs of senility. The first sign is that a man forgets his theorems. The second sign is that he forgets to zip up. The third sign is that he forgets to zip down.

  Paul Erdos

  Men, Three, Firsts

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• Economists often like startling theorems, results which seem to run counter to conventional wisdom.

  Joseph Stiglitz

  Running, Wisdom, Results

  Autobiographical Essay for the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, www.nobelprize.org. 2001.

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• God has the Big Book, the beautiful proofs of mathematical theorems are listed here.

  Paul Erdos

  Beautiful, Book, Math

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• Mathematics is not a deductive science - that's a cliché... What you do is trial and error, experimentation, guesswork.

  Paul Halmos

  Math, Errors, Trial And Error

  "I Want to be a Mathematician: An Automathography". Book by Paul Halmos, 1985.

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• The principle is so perfectly general that no particular application of it is possible.

  George Polya

  Knowledge, Math, Principles

  George Pólya (1948). “How to solve it: a new aspect of mathematical method”

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• One geometry cannot be more true than another; it can only be more convenient.

  Henri Poincare

  Mathematics, Geometry, Convenient

  Henri Poincare (2012). “The Value of Science: Essential Writings of Henri Poincare”, p.85, Modern Library

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• The elegance of a mathematical theorem is directly proportional to the number of independent ideas one can see in the theorem and inversely proportional to the effort it takes to see them.

  George Polya

  Independent, Ideas, Numbers

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• Combinatorial analysis, in the trivial sense of manipulating binomial and multinomial coefficients, and formally expanding powers of infinite series by applications ad libitum and ad nauseamque of the multinomial theorem, represented the best that academic mathematics could do in the Germany of the late 18th century.

  Richard Askey

  Science, Germany, Analysis

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• If you have to prove a theorem, do not rush. First of all, understand fully what the theorem says, try to see clearly what it means. Then check the theorem; it could be false. Examine the consequences, verify as many particular instances as are needed to convince yourself of the truth. When you have satisfied yourself that the theorem is true, you can start proving it.

  George Polya

  Truth, Mean, Math

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• The great poem and the deep theorem are new to every reader, and yet are his own experiences, because he himself recreates them.

  Jacob Bronowski

  Justice, Diversity, Culture

  Jacob Bronowski (2011). “Science and Human Values”, p.18, Faber & Faber

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• How many theorems in geometry which have seemed at first impracticable are in time successfully worked out!

  Archimedes

  Firsts, Geometry

  Archimedes (2007). “The Works of Archimedes”, p.151, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Theorems often tell us complex truths about the simple things, but only rarely tell us simple truths about the complex ones. To believe otherwise is wishful thinking or "mathematics envy."

  Marvin Minsky

  Believe, Simple, Thinking

  "Music, Mind, and Meaning". Computer Music Journal, Volume 5, Number 3, web.media.mit.edu. 1981.

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• It is a matter for considerable regret that Fermat, who cultivated the theory of numbers with so much success, did not leave us with the proofs of the theorems he discovered. In truth, Messrs Euler and Lagrange, who have not disdained this kind of research, have proved most of these theorems, and have even substituted extensive theories for the isolated propositions of Fermat. But there are several proofs which have resisted their efforts.

  Adrien-Marie Legendre

  Regret, Numbers, Effort

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• [Barack] Obama still is in campaign mode. The Limbaugh Theorem explains it. We've had eight years of Obama and he still isn't being held accountable for the horrible policies that he has implemented because he continues to portray himself as not attached to them.

  Rush Limbaugh

  Eight, Years, Campaigns

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

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• About Thomas Hobbes: He was 40 years old before he looked on geometry; which happened accidentally. Being in a gentleman's library, Euclid's Elements lay open, and "twas the 47 El. libri I" [Pythagoras' Theorem]. He read the proposition "By God", sayd he, "this is impossible:" So he reads the demonstration of it, which referred him back to such a proposition; which proposition he read. That referred him back to another, which he also read. Et sic deinceps, that at last he was demonstratively convinced of that truth. This made him in love with geometry.

  John Aubrey

  Love, Truth, Years

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• But my shift to the serious study of economics gradually weakened my belief in Major Douglas's A+B theorem, which was replaced in my thought by the expression MV = PT.

  James Meade

  Expression, Serious, Belief

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• Human rights are an aspect of natural law, a consequence of the way the universe works, as solid and as real as photons or the concept of pi. The idea of self- ownership is the equivalent of Pythagoras' theorem, of evolution by natural selection, of general relativity, and of quantum theory. Before humankind discovered any of these, it suffered, to varying degrees, in misery and ignorance.

  L. Neil Smith

  Real, Ignorance, Self

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• I just enjoy calculating, and it's an instrument I know how to play. It's almost an athletic performance, in a way. I was just watching the Olympics, and that's how I feel when proving a theorem.

  Freeman Dyson

  Play, Athletic, Olympics

  "Legendary physicist Freeman Dyson talks about math, nuclear rockets, and astounding things about the universe". Interview with Elena Holodny, www.businessinsider.com. September 9, 2016.

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