“I have heard myself accused of being an opponent, an enemy of mathematics, which no one can value more highly than I, for it accomplishes the very thing whose achievement has been denied me.” Has BeensValuesEnemyHeardAchievementMathematicsAccomplishOpponentsDeniedAccused Author:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“As a kid, I dreamt of becoming a writer. My most exciting pastime was reading novels; in fact, I would read anything I could find. I never thought I would pursue mathematics until my last year in high school. I grew up in a family with three siblings. My parents were always very supportive and encouraging. It was important for them that we have meaningful and satisfying professions, but they didn't care as much about success and achievement.” ImportantCareKidsSchoolReadingParentNovelAchievementHigh SchoolExcitingMathematicsProfessionMeaningfulSupportiveSibling Author:Maryam Mirzakhani
“As history proves abundantly, mathematical achievement, whatever its intrinsic worth, is the most enduring of all.” HistoryProveAchievementMathematicsEndureMathematical Book:A Mathematician's Apology Source: A Mathematician's Apology
“The calculus was the first achievement of modern mathematics and it is difficult to overestimate its importance. I think it defines more unequivocally than anything else the inception of modern mathematics; and the system of mathematical analysis, which is its logical development, still constitutes the greatest technical advance in exact thinking.” ThinkingFirstsStillsDifficultTeachingModernDevelopmentAchievementImportanceMathematicsMathMathematicalAnalysisLogicalCalculusOverestimateInceptionMathematical Analysis Book:The Neumann Compendium Source: The Neumann Compendium
“Mathematicians boast of their exacting achievements, but in reality they are absorbed in mental acrobatics and contribute nothing to society.” RealitySocietyAchievementMathematicsMathMathematicalMathematicianBoastAcrobatics Author:Ogyu Sorai
“It is India that gave us the ingenious method of expressing all numbers by means of ten symbols, each symbol receiving a value of position as well as an absolute value; a profound and important idea which appears so simple to us now that we ignore its true merit. But its very simplicity and the great ease which it has lent to computations put our arithmetic in the first rank of useful inventions; and we shall appreciate the grandeur of the achievement the more when we remember that it escaped the genius of Archimedes and Apollonius, two of the greatest men produced by antiquity.” MenFirstsWellsMeanTwoImportantIdeasRememberValuesSimpleNumbersEducationPositionGeniusTenAchievementAppreciateIndiaAbsolutesMathematicsMethodProfoundSimplicityAppreciationMathInventionSymbolsMathematicalEaseMeritReceivingGrandeurAntiquityIngeniousArithmeticComputationNumbers And MathGreatest ManGreat Math Author:Pierre-Simon Laplace
“The discovery in 1846 of the planet Neptune was a dramatic and spectacular achievement of mathematical astronomy. The very existence of this new member of the solar system, and its exact location, were demonstrated with pencil and paper; there was left to observers only the routine task of pointing their telescopes at the spot the mathematicians had marked.” LeftExistencePlanetsMembersAchievementPaperDiscoveryTasksMathematicsMathAstronomySpotsMathematicalDramaticRoutineMathematicianLocationPencilsObserversPointingSpectacularTelescopesSolar SystemNeptune Book:The World of Mathematics Source: The World of Mathematics
“Without the concepts, methods and results found and developed by previous generations right down to Greek antiquity one cannot understand either the aims or achievements of mathematics in the last 50 years. [Said in 1950]” YearsSaidLastsFoundResultsGenerationsAchievementConceptsExperienceAimMathematicsMethodGreekAntiquityPrevious Generations Author:Hermann Weyl