Mathematics By Mathematicians Quotes

• Mathematicians do not study objects, but the relations between objects.

  Henri Poincare

  Study, Relation, Mathematician

  "The Value of Science: Essential Writings of Henri Poincare".

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• A mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas.

  G. H. Hardy

  Education, Math, Unique

  G. H. Hardy (2012). “A Mathematician's Apology”, p.84, Cambridge University Press

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• Mathematics is the science which uses easy words for hard ideas.

  Edward Kasner

  Math, Ideas, Use

  Edward Kasner, James Newman (2013). “Mathematics and the Imagination”, p.4, Courier Corporation

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• But mathematics is the sister, as well as the servant, of the arts and is touched with the same madness and genius.

  Marston Morse

  Art, Math, Science

  Marston Morse, Raoul Bott (1981). “Selected papers”, Springer Verlag

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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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• 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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• If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.

  John von Neumann

  Believe, Math, Simple

  John von Neumann's remarks as keynote speaker at the first national meeting of the Association for Computing Machinery (1947) as quoted in "Archaeology of computers: Reminiscences, 1945-1947" by Franz L. Alt, Communications of the ACM, Volume 15, Issue 7, special issue: Twenty-fifth anniversary of the Association for Computing Machinery (p. 694), July 1972.

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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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• Reductio ad absurdum, which Euclid loved so much, is one of a mathematician's finest weapons. It is a far finer gambit than any chess play: a chess player may offer the sacrifice of a pawn or even a piece, but a mathematician offers the game.

  G. H. Hardy

  Love, Sacrifice, Math

  G. H. Hardy, C. P. Snow (2012). “A Mathematician's Apology”, p.94, Cambridge University Press

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• The mathematician's patterns, like the painter's or the poet's must be beautiful; the ideas, like the colours or the words must fit together in a harmonious way. Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics.

  G. H. Hardy

  Beauty, Beautiful, Math

  A Mathematician's Apology ch. 10 (1940)

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• Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics.

  G. H. Hardy

  Beauty, Math, Apology

  A Mathematician's Apology ch. 10 (1940)

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• We used to think that if we knew one, we knew two, because one and one are two. We are finding that we must learn a great deal more about 'and'.

  Arthur Eddington

  Learning, Math, Thinking

  "A Dictionary of Scientific Quotations" by Alan L. Mackay, (p. 79), 1991.

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• It should seem that it is easier to square the circle than to get round a mathematician.

  Augustus De Morgan

  Education, Math, Squares

  "A Budget of Paradoxes".

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• Since the mathematicians have invaded the theory of relativity I do not understand it myself any more.

  Albert Einstein

  Math, Computer, Theory

  Albert Einstein (1970). “Albert Einstein: philosopher-scientist”

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• Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare.

  Rene Descartes

  Math, Men, Numbers

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  God used beautiful mathematics in creating the world.

  Paul Dirac

  Beautiful, God, Creating

  "The Cosmic Code: Quantum Physics As The Language Of Nature". Book by Heinz Pagels, p. 295, 1982.

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• God exists since mathematics is consistent, and the Devil exists since we cannot prove it.

  Andre Weil

  Math, Devil, Existence

  "Mathematical Circles Adieu: A Fourth Collection of Mathematical Stories and Anecdotes". Book by Howard Whitley Eves, 1977.

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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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• 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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• Mathematics is a game played according to certain simple rules with meaningless marks on paper.

  David Hilbert

  Math, Simple, Games

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• A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn't there.

  Charles Darwin

  Inspirational, Cat, Science

  Quoted in John D Barrow Pie in the Sky, Counting, Thinking and Being (1992).

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• We never know what we are talking about.

  Karl Popper

  Math, Talking, Mathematical Logic

  Karl Popper (2005). “Unended Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography”, p.26, Routledge

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• Mathematics compares the most diverse phenomena and discovers the secret analogies that unite them.

  Joseph Fourier

  Math, Science, Secret

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• Young man, in mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them.

  John von Neumann

  Math, Science, Men

  Quoted in Gary Zukav, The DancingWu Li Masters (1979)

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• Mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things.

  Henri Poincare

  Art, Science, Math

  Henri Poincare (2012). “The Value of Science: Essential Writings of Henri Poincare”, p.622, Modern Library

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