“Mystery is an inescapable ingredient of mathematics. Mathematics is full of unanswered questions, which far outnumber known theorems and results. It's the nature of mathematics to pose more problems than it can solve. Indeed, mathematics itself may be built on small islands of truth comprising the pieces of mathematics that can be validated by relatively short proofs. All else is speculation.” MayProblemResultsKnownPiecesMysteryBuiltLogicMathematicsSolveProofCertaintyUncertaintyIslandsReasoningIngredientsSpeculationOntologyTheoremsUnanswered QuestionsUnanswered Author:Ivars Peterson
“Mathematics is not arithmetic. Though mathematics may have arisen from the practices of counting and measuring it really deals with logical reasoning in which theorems-general and specific statements-can be deduced from the starting assumptions. It is, perhaps, the purest and most rigorous of intellectual activities, and is often thought of as queen of the sciences.” MayScienceDealsPracticeActivityIntellectualAccountsMathematicsStartingStatementsQueensAssumptionReasoningLogicalCountingMeasuringArithmeticTheoremsLogical Reasoning Author:Christopher Zeeman
“One magnitude is said to be the limit of another magnitude when the second may approach the first within any given magnitude, however small, though the second may never exceed the magnitude it approaches.” FirstsMaySaidGivenLimitsApproachMathematicsExceedMagnitude Author:Jean le Rond d'Alembert
“It may be true, that men, who are mere mathematicians, have certain specific shortcomings, but that is not the fault of mathematics, for it is equally true of every other exclusive occupation.” MenMayCertainMathematicsFaultsMereBeing TrueOccupationMathematicianExclusiveShortcomings Author:Carl Friedrich Gauss
“When I came back from Munich, it was September, and I was Professor of Mathematics at the Eindhoven University of Technology. Later I learned that I had been the Department's third choice, after two numerical analysts had turned the invitation down; the decision to invite me had not been an easy one, on the one hand because I had not really studied mathematics, and on the other hand because of my sandals, my beard and my "arrogance" (whatever that may be).” MayTwoHandsChoicesEasyDecisionTechnologyThirdsMathematicsUniversityArroganceDepartmentProfessorsInvitesSeptemberInvitationsBeardAnalystsSandalsMunich Author:Edsger Dijkstra