Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
If god does not exist, one loses nothing by believing in him anyway, while if he does exist, one stands to lose everything by not believing.
The first steps in the path of discovery, and the first approximate measures, are those which add most to the existing knowledge of mankind.
The perfection of mathematical beauty is such...that whatsoever is most beautiful and regular is also found to be most useful and excellent.
The testament of science is so continually in a flux that the heresy of yesterday is the gospel of today and the fundamentalism of tomorrow.
In right-angled triangles the square on the side subtending the right angle is equal to the squares on the sides containing the right angle.
Mathematicians - for what they do - are really poorly rewarded. And it's a very competitive field, almost as bad as being a concert pianist.
To love is to be delighted by the happiness of someone, or to experience pleasure upon the happiness of another. I define this as true love.
A very small cause, which escapes us, determines a considerable effect which we cannot ignore, and we say that this effect is due to chance.
It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.
The roads by which men arrive at their insights into celestial matters seem to me almost as worthy of wonder as those matters in themselves.
Now, as God the maker play'd he taught the game to Nature whom he created in his image; taught her the selfsame game which he played to her.
Geometry is one and eternal shining in the mind of God. That share in it accorded to men is one of the reasons that Man is the image of God.
So, influenced by these advisors and this hope, I have at length allowed my friends to publish the work, as they had long besought me to do.
With an absurd oversimplification, the "invention" of calculus [method in mathematics] is sometimes ascribed to two men, Newton and Leibniz.
What the gears cannot do the computer might. The computer is the Proteus of machines. Its essence is its universality, its power to simulate
The young man taught all he knew and more; The middle-aged man taught all he knew; The old man taught all that his students could understand.
Religion is so great a thing that it is right that those who will not take the trouble to seek it if it be obscure, should be deprived of it.
All men seek happiness. There are no exceptions.... This is the motive of every act of every man, including those who go and hang themselves.
We are fools to depend upon the society of our fellow-men. Wretched as we are, powerless as we are, they will not aid us; we shall die alone.
My young friend, I wish that science would intoxicate you as much as our good Göttingen beer! Upon seeing a student staggering down a street.
I am very seldom interested in applications. I am more interested in the elegance of a problem. Is it a good problem, an interesting problem?
A false conclusion once arrived at and widely accepted is not easily dislodged and the less it is understood the more tenaciously it is held.
In one word, to draw the rule from experience, one must generalize; this is a necessity that imposes itself on the most circumspect observer.
Mr Newton, a fellow of our College, and very young, being but the second year master of arts; but of an extraordinary genius and proficiency.
... The approach of von Neumann and Connes to the use of non-commutative algebra in physics is naive, the situation is much more complicated.
In England it was enough that Newton was the greatest mathematican of his century; in France he would have been expected to be agreeable too.
My greatest desire is that I may perceive the God whom I find everywhere in the external world, in like manner also within and inside myself.
In all important respects, the man who has nothing but his physical power to sell has nothing to sell which it is worth anyone's money to buy
I have free will, but not of my own choice. I have never freely chosen to have free will. I have to have free will, whether I like it or not!
Why do I act as I do? To tell you the truth, I have absolutely no idea why. It is simply my nature to act as I act, and that's all I can say.
Ultimately you should follow advice not because someone tells you to, but because it was something that you already knew you should be doing.
One day ladies will take their computers for walks in the park and tell each other, "My little computer said such a funny thing this morning".
The tragedy of the world is that those who are imaginative have but slight experience, and those who are experienced have feeble imaginations.
Euclid avoids it [the treatment of the infinite]; in modern mathematics it is systematically introduced, for only then is generality obtained.
It's your life story if you're a mathematician: every time you discover something neat, you discover that Gauss or Newton knew it in his crib.
Reason commands us far more imperiously than a master; for in disobeying the one we are unfortunate, and in disobeying the other we are fools.
When some passion or effect is described in a natural style, we find within ourselves the truth of what we hear, without knowing it was there.
All err the more dangerously because each follows a truth. Their mistake lies not in following a falsehood but in not following another truth.
The possessors of wealth can scarcely be indifferent to processes which, nearly or remotely have been the fertile source of their possessions.
The first rule of discovery is to have brains and good luck. The second rule of discovery is to sit tight and wait till you get a bright idea.
It is necessary to believe that the mixture of evil has produced the greatest possible good: otherwise the evil would not have been permitted.
The monad, of which we shall speak here, is nothing but a simple substance which enters into compounds; simple, that is to say, without parts.
Bertrand Russell started off as a mathematician and then degenerated into a philosopher and finally into a humanist; he went downhill rapidly!
Because Mathematicians frequently make use of Time, they ought to have a distinct idea of the meaning of that Word, otherwise they are Quacks.
The idea that the universe is running down comes from a simple observation about machines. Every machine consumes more energy than it renders.
The true system of the World has been recognized, developed and perfected...Everything has been discussed and analysed, or at least mentioned.
wheresoever the earth may be placed, or whithersoever it may be carried by its animal faculty, heavy bodies will always be carried towards it.
People think that mathematics is complicated. Mathematics is the simple bit, it’s the stuff we CAN understand. It’s cats that are complicated.
It is most important in creative science not to give up. If you are an optimist you will be willing to "try" more than if you are a pessimist.
I loved this smart, funny, big-hearted novel. As hilarious and wise as early Philip Roth, The Mathematician's Shiva will delight and move you.