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Quote by Adrien-Marie Legendre

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Adrien-Marie Legendre
Adrien-Marie Legendre

Adrien-Marie Legendre was a French mathematician who made significant contributions to number theory, differential equations, and mathematical physics. He is known for his work on the theory of elliptic functions and his development of the method of least squares. Legendre's textbooks on mathematics were highly influential in the 19th century. more

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“By convention sweet is sweet, by convention bitter is bitter, by convention hot is hot, by convention cold is cold, by convention color is color. But in reality there are atoms and the void. That is, the objects of sense are supposed to be real and it is customary to regard them as such, but in truth they are not. Only the atoms and the void are real.”

RealRealityTruthScienceObjectsSweetColdHotRegardBitterSupposed To BeColourAtomsConventionsVoidBeing Real
Author:Democritus
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“Descriptive geometry has two objects: the first is to establish methods to represent on drawing paper which has only two dimensions,-namely, length and width,-all solids of nature which have three dimensions,-length, width, and depth,-provided, however, that these solids are capable of rigorous definition. The second object is to furnish means to recognize accordingly an exact description of the forms of solids and to derive thereby all truths which result from their forms and their respective positions.”

FirstsMeanTwoTruthFormScienceThreeNatureResultsPositionObjectsPaperCapableMethodDepthDefinitionsDrawingDimensionsDescriptionLengthGeometryWidthThree Dimensions
Author:Gaspard Monge
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“It appears to me that those who rely simply on the weight of authority to prove any assertion, without searching out the arguments to support it, act absurdly. I wish to question freely and to answer freely without any sort of adulation. That well becomes any who are sincere in the search for truth.”

WellsTruthScienceWishFreedomAnswersSupportProveAuthorityArgumentWeightRelySincereQuestioningProvenAbsurdityAssertionScientific MethodSearch For TruthAdulation
Author:Vincenzo Galilei
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“It is clear, then, that the idea of a fixed method, or of a fixed theory of rationality, rests on too naive a view of man and his social surroundings. To those who look at the rich material provided by history, and who are not intent on impoverishing it in order to please their lower instincts, their craving for intellectual security in the form of clarity, precision, "objectivity," "truth," it will become clear that there is only one principle that can be defended under all circumstances and in all stages of human development. It is the principle: anything goes.”

MenHumansLooksIdeasTruthFormScienceOrderSocialViewsPrinciplesRichClearStageSecurityMaterialsTheoryDevelopmentCircumstancesPleaseIntellectualMethodInstinctClarityFixedRationalityHypothesisNaiveSurroundingsCravingObjectivityPrecisionHuman DevelopmentAnything Goes
Author:Paul Feyerabend
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“It is worth remembering (though there is nothing that we can do about it) that the world as it really is may easily be a far nastier place than it would be if scientific materialism were the whole truth and nothing but the truth about it.”

IfsWorldMayWholeWould BeTruthRememberCan DoMaterialismWhole TruthNothing But The Truth
Book:Lectures on Psychical Research (Routledge Revivals): Incorporating the Perrott Lectures Given in Cambridge University in 1959 and 1960
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“Mathematics is a form of poetry which transcends poetry in that it proclaims a truth; a form of reasoning which transcends reasoning in that it wants to bring about the truth it proclaims; a form of action, of ritual behavior, which does not find fulfilment in the act but must proclaim and elaborate a poetic form of truth.”

WantDoeTruthActionFormScienceBehaviorMathematicsReasoningPoeticRitualFulfilment
Book:Collected Papers of Salomon Bochner
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