Math Quotations

< 32.7 Srinivasa Ramanujan | Topic Index | 32.9 Modular Arithmetic >

Here are a few quotations which show how mathematicians viewed their subject.

Arithmetic

God created the natural numbers. All the rest is the work of man - Leopold Kronecker; German mathematician and logician; 1823-1891.

God does arithmetic -Karl Friedrich Gauss

Wherever there is number there is beauty - Proclus

Geometry

God geometrises continually - Plato

There is no royal road to Geometry - Euclid

All my physics is nothing else than geometry - Descartes

If the Greeks had not cultivated conic sections, Kepler would not have superseded Ptolemy - Whewell.

Sciences &amp; Mathematics

The two eyes of exact science of mathematics and logic - De Morgan

All scientific education which does not commence with mathematics is, of necessity, defective at its foundation - Compte.

Mathematics is the indispensable instrument of all physical research - Berthelot

A natural science is a science only in so far as it is mathematical - Kant.

Mathematics is the gate and key to science – Roger Bacon

Mathematics is the queen of sciences She often condescends to render service to astronomy and other natural sciences, but in all relations, she is entitled to the first rank - Carl Friedrich Gauss; German mathematician, physicist, and prodigy; 1777-1855.

There is no branch of mathematics, however abstract, which may not someday be applied to phenomena of the real world - Nikolai Lobatchevsky

Since the mathematicians have invaded the theory of relativity, I do not understand it myself anymore - Albert Einstein

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality - Albert Einstein

Mathematics &amp; Society

I am accustomed, as a professional mathematician, to living in a sort of vacuum, surrounded by people who declare with an odd sort of pride that they are mathematically illiterate -David Mumford

The progress &amp; the improvement of mathematics are linked to the prosperity of the state - Napoleon.

No subject loses more than mathematics by any attempt to dissociate it from its history - Glaisher.

A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator the smaller the fraction - Leo Tolstoy

The difference between the poet and the mathematician is that the poet tries to get his head into the heavens while the mathematician tries to get the heavens into his head - G K Chesterton

Mathematics – Other Branches

A topologist is one who doesn&#39;t know the difference between a doughnut and a coffee cup -John Kelley

Statistics: the mathematical theory of ignorance -Morris Kline

Mathematics

Mathematics is the glory of the human mind - Liebnitz

Geometry is nothing if it is not rigorous – H J S Smith

Mathematics is the most marvelous instrument created by the genius of man for the discovery of truth. - Laisant.

From the intrinsic evidence of his creation, the Great Architect of the Universe now begins to appear as a pure mathematician -Sir James Jeans

Universe is written in the language of mathematics and its characters are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures – Galileo

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

[Mathematics] is an independent world created out of pure intelligence -William Wordsworth

Mathematical proofs, like diamonds, are hard and clear, and will be touched with nothing but strict reasoning -John Locke

The science of pure mathematics, in its modern developments, may claim to be the most original creation of the human spirit – Alfred North Whitehead

Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations or algorithms, it is about understanding - William Paul Thurston

< 32.7 Srinivasa Ramanujan | Topic Index | 32.9 Modular Arithmetic >