Quotessence
Home / Authors / Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner

Martin Gardner Quotes

Science writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllMathematicsMathMathematicianIfsMathematicalScienceBookDoeEducationSaidScientistShouldTryingUniverseAbsurdityBeautifulBehindsChildrenFactsKnows

Famous Martin Gardner Quotes

“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

“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