Quotessence
Home / Topics / Mathematics Quotes

Mathematics Quotes

Browse 2551 quotes about Mathematics.

Related topics

MathScienceMathematicianIfsWorldEducationMenNumbersThinkingKnowsProblemLogicMayPhysicsLanguageWayShouldArtHumansStatisticsTheoryStudyMathematics And ScienceMindPeopleMath And ScienceDoeIdeasTwoFirstsSubjectsPureMathematics By MathematiciansGeometryFactsReasonProofGivingWellsUniverseLawTheoremsUseUnderstandingReasoningMath EducationSeemsDiscoveryNeedsRealNumbers And MathBelievePhilosophyCalculusMeanTeachingResultsHas BeensKindKnowledgeLittlesSchoolComputerNaturalSaidYearsFormMadeCertainPrinciplesRealityStudentsWritingDifferentFieldsImportantMathematical LogicWholeBookConceptsOrderSimpleTryingFunny MathematicsRelationArithmeticBeautifulBranchesLongModernUsedWould BeAnswersEquationsExampleFeelsHardImaginationIntellectualMightmore

Mathematics Quotes

“We may discover resources on the moon or Mars that will boggle the imagination, that will test our limits to dream. And the fascination generated by further exploration will inspire our young people to study math, and science, and engineering and create a new generation of innovators and pioneers.”

PeopleMayDreamYoungScienceImaginationStudyGenerationsInspireMoonLimitsResourcesTestsAccountsMathematicsMathExplorationEngineeringMarsFascinationPioneersNew GenerationInnovatorsMath And Science
Author:George W. Bush
Create image

“The end of the eighteenth and the commencement of the nineteenth century are remarkable for the small amount of scientific movement going on in this country, especially in its more exact departments. Mathematics were at the last gasp, and astronomy nearly so; I mean in those members of its frame which depend upon precise measurement and systematic calculation. The chilling torpor of routine had begun to spread itself over all those branches of Science which wanted the excitement of experimental research.”

MeanEndsCountryWantedLastsScienceCenturyMovementDependsAmountMembersResearchAccountsMathematicsSpreadAstronomyExcitementBranchesDepartmentRemarkableRoutinePreciseChillMeasurementCalculationsSystematicNineteenth CenturySmall Amounts
Author:John Herschel
Create image

“[Regarding mathematics,] there are now few studies more generally recognized, for good reasons or bad, as profitable and praiseworthy. This may be true; indeed it is probable, since the sensational triumphs of Einstein, that stellar astronomy and atomic physics are the only sciences which stand higher in popular estimation.”

MayReasonStudyHigherMathematicsPhysicsAstronomyBeing TrueTriumphProfitableEstimationSensationalPraiseworthyStellar
Author:G. H. Hardy
Create image

“In the beginning (if there was such a thing), God created Newton's laws of motion together with the necessary masses and forces. This is all; everything beyond this follows from the development of appropriate mathematical methods by means of deduction.”

IfsMeanGodTogetherLawScienceForceDevelopmentMassMathematicsMethodMathMathematicalAppropriateNewtonDeductionsLaws Of MotionNewton's Laws
Book:A Stubbornly Persistent Illusion: The Essential Scientific Works of Albert Einstein
Create image

“Mathematical Knowledge adds a manly Vigour to the Mind, frees it from Prejudice, Credulity, and Superstition.”

KnowsMindScienceKnowledgePrejudiceMathematicsAddMathMathematicalSuperstitionsManlyCredulityMath And ScienceMathematics And Science
Book:An Essay on the Usefulness of Mathematical Learning,: In a Letter from a Gentleman in the City to His Friend in Oxford..
Create image

“Now, in the development of our knowledge of the workings of Nature out of the tremendously complex assemblage of phenomena presented to the scientific inquirer, mathematics plays in some respects a very limited, in others a very important part. As regards the limitations, it is merely necessary to refer to the sciences connected with living matter, and to the ologies generally, to see that the facts and their connections are too indistinctly known to render mathematical analysis practicable, to say nothing of the complexity.”

ImportantMatterPlayFactsScienceNatureKnownKnowledgeDevelopmentConnectionsRegardMathematicsComplexesConnectedMathematicalLimitationAnalysisComplexityAssemblageInquirersMathematical Analysis
Author:Oliver Heaviside
Create image

“The life and soul of science is its practical application, and just as the great advances in mathematics have been made through the desire of discovering the solution of problems which were of a highly practical kind in mathematical science, so in physical science many of the greatest advances that have been made from the beginning of the world to the present time have been made in the earnest desire to turn the knowledge of the properties of matter to some purpose useful to mankind.”

WorldKindHas BeensMadeSoulMatterProblemScienceDesirePurposeTurnsKnowledgeMankindSolutionsMathematicsPropertyPracticalsMathematicalApplicationDiscoveringEarnestPresent TimePhysical ScienceProperties Of Matter
Author:Lord Kelvin
Create image

“The mere man of pleasure is miserable in old age, and the mere drudge in business is but little better, whereas, natural philosophy, mathematical and mechanical science, are a continual source of tranquil pleasure, and in spite of the gloomy dogmas of priests and of superstition, the study of these things is the true theology; it teaches man to know and admire the Creator, for the principles of science are in the creation, and are unchangeable and of divine origin.”

KnowsMenLittlesPhilosophyAgeScienceNaturalPleasurePrinciplesKnowledgeTeachStudyCreationDivineSourceAccountsMathematicsMiseryMereCreatorTheologyAdmireOld AgeMiserableMathematicalSpitePriestsSuperstitionsDogmaGloomyTranquilUnchangeableNatural Philosophy
Book:The age of reason
Create image

“The Reader may here observe the Force of Numbers, which can be successfully applied, even to those things, which one would imagine are subject to no Rules. There are very few things which we know, which are not capable of being reduc'd to a Mathematical Reasoning, and when they cannot, it's a sign our Knowledge of them is very small and confus'd; and where a mathematical reasoning can be had, it's as great folly to make use of any other, as to grope for a thing in the dark when you have a Candle standing by you.”

KnowsMayUseSuccessScienceForceDarkNumbersKnowledgeImagineSubjectsReaderCapableStandingMathematicsMathematicalReasoningFollyCandle
Author:John Arbuthnot
Create image

“I believe that even a smattering of such findings in modern science and mathematics is far more compelling and exciting than most of the doctrines of pseudoscience, whose practitioners were condemned as early as the fifth century B.C. by the Ionian philosopher Heraclitus as “nigh -walkers, magicians, priests of Bacchus, priestesses of the wine-vat, mystery-mongers.” But science is more intricate and subtle, reveals a much richer imiverse, and powerfully evokes our sense of wonder.”

ImportantScienceNightUniverseWonderVirtueMysteryCenturyExcitingMathematicsWinePhilosopherDoctrineBeing TrueSubtlePriestsCompellingMagicianFifthEvokeIntricateWalkersSense Of WonderPseudoscienceBacchusVatPriestesses
Author:Carl Sagan
Create image

“There is an astonishing imagination, even in the science of mathematics. ... We repeat, there was far more imagination in the head of Archimedes than in that of Homer.”

ScienceImaginationImagineAccountsMathematicsMathRepeatsAstonishing
Book:Voltaire – The Philosophical Works: Treatise On Tolerance, Philosophical Dictionary, Candide, Letters on England, Plato’s Dream, Dialogues, The Study of Nature, Ancient Faith and Fable, Zadig…: From the French writer, historian and philosopher, famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion and freedom of expression
Create image

“[There is] one distinctly human thing - the story. There can be as good science about a turnip as about a man. ... [Or philosophy, or theology] ...There can be, without any question at all, as good higher mathematics about a turnip as about a man. But I do not think, though I speak in a manner somewhat tentative, that there could be as good a novel written about a turnip as a man.”

ThinkingMenHumansPhilosophyStoriesScienceSpeakNovelWrittenHigherAccountsMathematicsTheologyTurnipsGood Science
Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton
Create image

“Srinivasa Ramanujan was the strangest man in all of mathematics, probably in the entire history of science. He has been compared to a bursting supernova, illuminating the darkest, most profound corners of mathematics, before being tragically struck down by tuberculosis at the age of 33, like Riemann before him. Working in total isolation from the main currents of his field, he was able to rederive 100 years' worth of Western mathematics on his own. The tragedy of his life is that much of his work was wasted rediscovering known mathematics.”

MenLifeYearsHas BeensAgeAbleScienceLife IsKnownFieldsTragedyMathematicsProfoundWesternCurrentsCornersIsolationMathematicianBurstingIlluminatingHistory Of ScienceTuberculosisSupernovaRamanujan
Author:Michio Kaku
Create image

“As regards authority I so proceed. Boetius says in the second prologue to his Arithmetic, 'If an inquirer lacks the four parts of mathematics, he has very little ability to discover truth.' And again, 'Without this theory no one can have a correct insight into truth.' And he says also, 'I warn the man who spurns these paths of knowledge that he cannot philosophize correctly.' And Again, 'It is clear that whosoever passes these by, has lost the knowledge of all learning.'”

IfsMenLittlesTruthLostAbilityPathClearFourHe ManTheoryAuthorityRegardMathematicsInsightArithmeticPrologueInquirers
Book:Opus Majus, Volumes 1 and 2
Create image

“Of these austerer virtues the love of truth is the chief, and in mathematics, more than elsewhere, the love of truth may find encouragement for waning faith. Every great study is not only an end in itself, but also a means of creating and sustaining a lofty habit of mind; and this purpose should be kept always in view throughout the teaching and learning of mathematics.”

ShouldMindMayMeanEndsTruthPurposeViewsVirtueStudyTeachingHabitTruth IsCreatingEncouragementMathematicsChiefsElsewhereLoftySustainingTeaching And LearningHabits Of Mind
Book:Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays: Top Philosophy Collections
Create image

“Angling may be said to be so like the Mathematics that it can never be fully learnt; at least not so fully but that there will still be more new experiments left for the trial of other men that succeed us.”

MenMaySaidStillsScienceLeftLearningSucceedMathematicsTrialsExperimentsAngling
Book:The Complete Angler of Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton: Estensively Embellished with Engravings on Copper and Wood, from Original Paintings and Drawings, by First-rate Artists, to which are Added, an Introductory Essay, the Linnœan Arangement of the Various River Fish Delineated in the Work, and Illustrative Notes
Create image

“If physics leads us today to a world view which is essentially mystical, it returns, in a way, to its beginning, 2,500 years ago... This time, however, it is not only based on intuition, but also on experiments of great precision and sophistication, and on a rigorous and consistent mathematical formalism.”

IfsWorldWayYearsTodayScienceViewsReturnYears AgoMathematicsIntuitionPhysicsExperimentsMathematicalConsistentMysticalPrecisionSophisticationWorld View
Author:Fritjof Capra
Create image

“Just by studying mathematics we can hope to make a guess at the kind of mathematics that will come into the physics of the future... If someone can hit on the right lines along which to make this development, it may lead to a future advance in which people will first discover the equations and then, after examining them, gradually learn how to apply them... My own belief is that this is a more likely line of progress than trying to guess at physical pictures.”

PeopleIfsTryingFirstsKindMayScienceBeliefLinesMy OwnStudyProgressDevelopmentDiscoveryMathematicsPhysicsEquationsExaminingStudying Mathematics
Author:Paul Dirac
Create image

“Our present work sets forth mathematical principles of philosophy. For the basic problem of philosophy seems to be to discover the forces of nature from the phenomena of motions and then to demonstrate the other phenomena from these forces. It is to these ends that the general propositions in books 1 and 2 are directed, while in book 3 our explanation of the system of the world illustrates these propositions.”

WorldBookEndsPhilosophyProblemSeemsScienceForceNaturePrinciplesDiscoveryMathematicsMathematicalExplanationPropositionsForces Of Nature
Book:Newton: Philosophical Writings
Create image

“Standard mathematics has recently been rendered obsolete by the discovery that for years we have been writing the numeral five backward. This has led to reevaluation of counting as a method of getting from one to ten. Students are taught advanced concepts of Boolean algebra, and formerly unsolvable equations are dealt with by threats of reprisals.”

WritingYearsHas BeensScienceEducationFiveStudentsTaughtTenStandardsConceptsDiscoveryMathematicsMethodThreatMathMathematicalEquationsCountingObsoleteAlgebraMath And ScienceMath EducationReprisalNumerals
Book:The Insanity Defense: The Complete Prose
Create image

“Kant, discussing the various modes of perception by which the human mind apprehends nature, concluded that it is specially prone to see nature through mathematical spectacles. Just as a man wearing blue spectacles would see only a blue world, so Kant thought that, with our mental bias, we tend to see only a mathematical world.”

MenWorldMindHumansScienceNaturePerceptionMathematicsBlueVariousMathematicalHuman MindBiasDiscussingSpectacles
Book:The Mysterious Universe [New Revised Edition]
Create image