Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
It is not the job of mathematicians... to do correct arithmetical operations. It is the job of bank accountants.
Knowing what is big and what is small is more important than being able to solve partial differential equations.
Without a unified political climate of opinion, there is little or no political profit in doing the right thing.
The calculus is the greatest aid we have to the application of physical truth in the broadest sense of the word.
All the truths of mathematics are linked to each other, and all means of discovering them are equally admissible.
Governments are best classified by considering who are the 'somebodies' they are in fact endeavouring to satisfy.
It is not paradox to say that in our most theoretical moods we may be nearest to our most practical applications.
The centre of gravity of any parallelogram lies on the straight line joining the middle points of opposite sides.
What is man? ... What a strange union of matter and mind! A machine for converting material into spiritual force.
Happiness can be found neither in ourselves nor in external things, but in God and in ourselves as united to him.
He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God's providence to lead him aright.
Every mathematical discipline goes through three periods of development: the naive, the formal, and the critical.
Euclid taught me that without assumptions there is no proof. Therefore, in any argument, examine the assumptions.
Had Mittag-Leffler had his way, I should have to wait until the year 1984, which to me seemed too great a demand!
The progress of science is the discovery at each step of a new order which gives unity to what had seemed unlike.
Before creation, God did just pure mathematics. Then He thought it would be a pleasant change to do some applied.
But mathematics is the sister, as well as the servant, of the arts and is touched by the same madness and genius.
Therefore, having obtained the opportunity from these sources, I too began to consider the mobility of the earth.
We have modified our environment so radically that we must now modify ourselves to exist in this new environment.
It is not enough to be in the right place at the right time. You should also have an open mind at the right time.
Computation involves going from a question to an answer. Mathematics involves going from an answer to a question.
All our liberties are due to men who, when their conscience has compelled them, have broken the laws of the land.
No simplicity of mind, no obscurity of station, can escape the universal duty of questioning all that we believe.
A man provided with paper, pencil, and rubber, and subject to strict discipline, is in effect a universal machine.
We implore the mercy of God, not that He may leave us at peace in our vices, but that He may deliver us from them.
Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed.
Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are everything in this world.
The greatness of man is great in that he knows himself to be wretched. A tree does not know itself to be wretched.
One must be able to say at all times--instead of points, straight lines, and planes--tables, chairs, and beer mugs
I have always hated machinery, and the only machine I ever understood was a wheelbarrow, and that but imperfectly.
As history proves abundantly, mathematical achievement, whatever its intrinsic worth, is the most enduring of all.
He who understands Archimedes and Apollonius will admire less the achievements of the foremost men of later times.
But all of my efforts served only to make me better acquainted with the difficulty, which in itself was something.
Pedagogy, like language itself, can either liberate or imprison ideas, inspire of suffocate constructive thinking.
There may be occasions when it is best to behave irrationally, but whether there are should be decided rationally.
I have discovered such wonderful things that I was amazed... Out of nothing I have created a strange new universe.
If God himself has waited six thousand years for someone to contemplate his works, my book can wait for a hundred.
If you tell me precisely what it is a machine cannot do, then I can always make a machine which will do just that.
I've never met Hans Rosling, but I just knew him through his many YouTube videos, and they were absolute dynamite.
The quest for our origin is the sweet fruit's juice which maintains satisfaction in the minds of the philosophers.
Any useful logic must concern itself with Ideas with a fringe of vagueness and a Truth that is a matter of degree.
Someone has remarked that 'An ideal math talk should have one proof and one joke and they should not be the same'.
Questions have arisen about the policing of science. Who is responsible for the policing? My answer is: all of us.
The fixed person for the fixed duties who in older societies was such a godsend, in future will be a public danger.
You cannot be wise without some basis of knowledge, but you may easily acquire knowledge and remain bare of wisdom.
Mathematics, in its widest significance, is the development of all types of formal, necessary, deductive reasoning.
When people ask me what's my field? I say, on one hand, a fractalist. Perhaps the only one, the only full-time one.
When we see a natural style, we are astonished and charmed; for we expected to see an author, and we find a person.
How shall one who is so weak in his childhood become really strong when he grows older? We only change our fancies.
To make a man a saint, it must indeed be by grace; and whoever doubts this does not know what a saint is, or a man.