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Quote by Timothy Gowers

“A typical mathematician does not actively try to be useful. Individual mathematicians are motivated primarily by a subtle mixture of ambition and intellectual curiosity, and not by a wish to benefit society, nevertheless, mathematics as a whole does benefit society.”

Quote by Timothy Gowers

Author

Timothy Gowers
Timothy Gowers

Timothy Gowers is a British mathematician renowned for his research in combinatorial mathematics and mathematical logic. Born on November 20, 1963, he is a member of the Royal Society and has received prestigious awards such as the Fields Medal and the Crafoord Prize. more

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“Mathematicians can and do fill in gaps, correct errors, and supply more detail and more careful scholarship when they are called on or motivated to do so. Our system is quite good at producing reliable theorems that can be solidly backed up. It's just that the reliability does not primarily come from mathematicians formally checking formal arguments; it comes from mathematicians thinking carefully and critically about mathematical ideas.”

“Mathematics is about problems, and problems must be made the focus of a student's mathematical life. Painful and creatively frustrating as it may be, students and their teachers should at all times be engaged in the process - having ideas, not having ideas, discovering patterns, making conjectures, constructing examples and counterexamples, devising arguments, and critiquing each other's work.”