Quotessence
Home / Authors / Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner

Martin Gardner Quotes

Science writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllMathematicsMathMathematicianIfsMathematicalScienceBookDoeEducationSaid

Famous Martin Gardner Quotes

“Chesterton's topic is nothing less than the fundamental contrast between deductive logic, true of all possible worlds, and inductive logic, capable only of telling us how we may reasonably expect this world to behave. Let us hasten to add that Chesterton's analysis is in full agreement with the views of modern logicians. Perhaps his "test of the imagination" is not strictly accurate--who can "imagine" the four-dimensional constructions of relativity?-but in essence his position is unassailable. Logical and mathematical statements are true by definition. They are "empty tautologies," to use a current phrase, like the impressive maxim that there are always six eggs in half a dozen. Nature, on the other hand, is under no similar constraints. Fortunately, her "weird repetitions," as GK calls them, often conform to surprisingly low-order equations. But as Hume and others before Hume made clear, there is no logical reason why she should behave so politely.”

ReasonNatureLogicChestertonRepetitionsDeductiveIndictive
Book:Great Essays in Science
Create image

“I agree with Pierre Bayle and with Unamuno that when cold reason contemplates the world it finds not only an absence of God, but good reasons for supposing that there is no God at all. From this perspective, from what Unamuno called the 'tragic sense of life', from this despair, faith comes to the rescue, not only as something nonrational but in a sense irrational. For Unamuno the great symbol of a person of faith was his Spanish hero Don Quixote. Faith is indeed quixotic. It is absurd. Let us admit it. Let us concede to everything! To a rational mind the world looks like a world without God. It looks like a world with no hope for another life. To think otherwise, to believe in spite of appearances, is surely a kind of madness. The atheist sees clearly that windmills are in fact only windmills, that Dulcinea is just a poor country bumpkin with a homely face and an unpleasant smell. The atheist is a Sarah, justifiably laughing in her old age at Abraham's belief that God will give them a son. What can be said in reply? How can a fideist admit that faith is a kind of madness, a dream fed by passionate desire, and yet maintain that one is not mad to make the leap?”

ReasonAtheismMadnessAtheistAbsurdityLeap Of FaithDon QuixoteQuixoticUnamunoMiguel De UnamunoFideismBaylePierre Bayle
Author:Martin Gardner
Create image

“Her constant orders for beheading are shocking to those modern critics of children's literature who feel that juvenile fiction should be free of all violence and especially violence with Freudian undertones. Even the Oz books of L. Frank Baum, so singularly free of the horrors to be found in Grimm and Andersen, contain many scenes of decapitation. As far as I know, there have been no empirical studies of how children react to such scenes and what harm if any is done to their psyche. My guess is that the normal child finds it all very amusing and is not damaged in the least, but that books like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz should not be allowed to circulate indiscriminately among adults who are undergoing analysis.”

ChildrenDeathReadingLiteratureMediaBeheading
Book:The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition
Create image

“The rub is that any work of nonsense abounds with so many inviting symbols that you can start with any assumption you please about the author and easily build up an impressive case for it. Consider, for example, the scene in which Alice seizes the end of the White King's pencil and begins scribbling for him. In five minutes one can invent six different interpretations.”

PsychoanalysisInterpretation Of Literature
Book:The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition
Create image

“The last level of metaphor in the Alice books is this: that life, viewed rationally and without illusion, appears to be a nonsense tale told by an idiot mathematician. At the heart of things science finds only a mad, never-ending quadrille of Mock Turtle Waves and Gryphon Particles. For a moment the waves and particles dance in grotesque, inconceivably complex patterns capable of reflecting on their own absurdity.”

HeartBookMomentsLastsLevelsCapableIllusionMadComplexesMetaphorWavePatternsTalesIdiotNonsenseMathematicianAbsurdityParticlesReflectingMockNever EndingGrotesqueTurtles
Author:Martin Gardner
Create image

“As far as I know, Clifford Pickover is the first mathematician to write a book about areas where math and theology overlap. Are there mathematical proofs of God? Who are the great mathematicians who believed in a deity? Does numerology lead anywhere when applied to sacred literature? Pickover covers these and many other off-trail topics with his usual verve, humor, and clarity. And along the way the reader will learn a great deal of serious mathematics.”

KnowsWayWritingFirstsDoeBookLiteratureDealsSeriousReaderAreasMathematicsSacredMathProofTheologyClarityMathematicalUsualMathematicianTopicsTrailsDeitiesProof Of GodMathematical ProofNumerology
Author:Martin Gardner
Create image

“When reputable scientists correct flaws in an experiment that produced fantastic results, then fail to get those results when they repeat the test with flaws corrected, they withdraw their original claims. They do not defend them by arguing irrelevantly that the failed replication was successful in some other way, or by making intemperate attacks on whomever dares to criticize their competence.”

WayResultsSuccessfulFailingAtheismTestsScientistClaimsOriginalsDarePositive AtheismArguingExperimentsFantasticRepeatsFlawsCriticizeCompetenceReplication
Author:Martin Gardner
Create image

“One day, when I was doing well in class and had finished my lessons, I was sitting there trying to analyze the game of tic-tac-toe... The teacher came along and snatched my papers on which I had been doodling... She did not realize that analyzing tic-tac-toe can lead into dozens of non-trivial mathematical questions.”

TryingWellsScienceGamesRealizingClassTeacherLessonsOne DayPaperSittingMathematicsFinishedMathematicalDozenToesPapersAnalyzingTicsDoodlingTic Tacs
Author:Martin Gardner
Create image

“Let the Bible be the Bible. It's not about science. It's not accurate history. It is a grab bag of religious fantasies written by many authors. Some of its myths, like the Star of Bethlehem, are very beautiful. Others are dull and ugly. Some express lofty ideals, such as the parables of Jesus. Others are morally disgusting.”

BeautifulJesusStarsReligiousFantasyWrittenIdealsUglyMythDullBagsAccurateDisgustingLoftyVery BeautifulParablesBethlehem
Book:Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?: Debunking Pseudoscience
Create image

“If God creates a world of particles and waves, dancing in obedience to mathematical and physical laws, who are we to say that he cannot make use of those laws to cover the surface of a small planet with living creatures?”

IfsWorldUseLawReligionPlanetsCreaturesDancingWaveSurfaceMathematicalObedienceParticlesLiving Creatures
Book:The New Ambidextrous Universe: Symmetry and Asymmetry from Mirror Reflections to Superstrings
Create image

“If all sentient beings in the universe disappeared, there would remain a sense in which mathematical objects and theorems would continue to exist even though there would be no one around to write or talk about them. Huge prime numbers would continue to be prime, even if no one had proved them prime.”

IfsWritingWould BeScienceUniverseNumbersExistenceObjectsHugeMathematicalPrimeTheoremsSentient BeingsPrime Numbers
Book:When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish: And Other Speculations About This and That
Create image

“Politicians, real-estate agents, used-car salesmen, and advertising copy-writers are expected to stretch facts in self-serving directions, but scientists who falsify their results are regarded by their peers as committing an inexcusable crime. Yet the sad fact is that the history of science swarms with cases of outright fakery and instances of scientists who unconsciously distorted their work by seeing it through lenses of passionately held beliefs.”

RealSelfFactsScienceUsedBeliefResultsCasesSeeingCarCrimePoliticianScientistExpectedAdvertisingInstanceAgentsServingCopiesPeersEstatesLensesSalesmanSelf ServingSwarmsHistory Of ScienceUsed CarEstate AgentsCar SalesmanUsed Car Salesman
Author:Martin Gardner
Create image

“If present trends continue, our country may soon find itself far behind many other nations in both science and technology nations where, if you inform strangers that you are a mathematician, they respond with admiration and not by telling you how much they hated math in school, and how they sure could use you to balance their checkbooks.”

IfsMayCountryUseSchoolNationsBehindsTechnologyTeachingBalanceStrangerMathOur CountryHatedAdmirationTrendsMathematicianScience And Technology
Author:Martin Gardner
Create image

“Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of boneheads; ridiculous kings and queens, paranoid political leaders, compulsive voyagers, ignorant general the flotsam and jetsam of historical currents. The men who radically altered history, the great scientists and mathematicians, are seldom mentioned, if at all.”

IfsMenStillsSchoolPoliticalLeaderTeachingTaughtHe ManKingsScientistHistoricalCurrentsMathRidiculousIgnorantMathematicalQueensMathematicianPublic SchoolAlteredParanoidPolitical LeadersGreat ScientistMathematics By MathematiciansKings And QueensGreat MathFlotsam
Author:Martin Gardner
Create image

“Mathematics is not only real, but it is the only reality. That is that entire universe is made of matter, obviously. And matter is made of particles. It's made of electrons and neutrons and protons. So the entire universe is made out of particles. Now what are the particles made out of They're not made out of anything. The only thing you can say about the reality of an electron is to cite its mathematical properties. So there's a sense in which matter has completely dissolved and what is left is just a mathematical structure.”

MadeRealMatterRealityUniverseLeftJusticeMathematicsStructurePropertyMathMathematicalParticlesElectronsCitingNeutronsProton
Author:Martin Gardner
Create image

“Speaking about symmetry, look out our window, and you may see a cardinal attacking its reflection in the window. The cardinal is the only bird we have who often does this. If it has a nest nearby, the cardinal thinks there is another cardinal trying to invade its territory. It never realizes it is attacking its own reflection. Cardinals don't know much about mirror symmetry!”

IfsThinkingKnowsTryingLooksMayDoeRealizingBirdReflectionWindowMirrorsTerritoryAttackingNestsCardinalsSymmetry
Author:Martin Gardner
Create image

“There are, and always have been, destructive pseudo-scientific notions linked to race and religion; these are the most widespread and damaging. Hopefully, educated people can succeed in shedding light into these areas of prejudice and ignorance, for as Voltaire once said: "Men will commit atrocities as long as they believe absurdities."”

PeopleMenBelieveLongHas BeensSaidLightRaceIgnoranceSucceedAreasPrejudiceNotionCommitEducatedHopefullyDestructiveAbsurdityLinkedAtrocitiesPseudoRace And ReligionShedding Light
Author:Martin Gardner
Create image

“It is part of the pholosophic dullness of our time that there are millions of rational monsters walking about on their hind legs, observing the world through pairs of flexible little lenses, periodically supplying themselves with energy by pushing organic substances through holes in their faces, who see nothing fabulous whatever about themselves.”

WorldLittlesFacesEnergyMillionsWalkingLegsMonstersHolesRationalSubstanceOur TimePushingPairsFabulousLensesFlexibleObservingDullnessObserving The World
Author:Martin Gardner
Create image

“Wouldn't the sentence 'I want to put a hyphen between the words Fish and And and And and Chips in my Fish-and-Chips sign' have been clearer if quotation marks had been placed before Fish, and between Fish and and, and and and And, and And and and, and and and And, and And and and, and and and Chips, as well as after Chips?”

IfsWantWellsHas BeensMarkFishesSentencesQuotationsChipsQuotation MarksFish And ChipsHyphens
Book:Aha! A Two Volume Collection: Aha! Gotcha Aha! Insight
Create image