Quotes from Morris Kline

The good Christian should beware of mathematicians and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell.

Though Leibniz may have had special reasons for considering base two, neither this base nor any other had until recently been seriously considered as a substitute for base ten. In fact, aside from incidental uses of other bases in higher mathematics to facilitate an occasional proof, the subject of bases other than ten was regarded until recently as an intellectual amusement.

Of course it must be noted that no decimal expression, no matter how many decimal places are used, will ever exactly equal an irrational number; a decimal is a fraction, and an irrational, we saw, cannot equal a fraction.

Because the knowledge of counting, adding, subtracting, and the like is regarded as a preparation for "life" we are taught it mechanically from early childhood. The practice takes precedence over the principles. No doubt this introduction to life is not especially cheering.

the nerve cells respond to electrical impulses much as an electron tube does.

The mathematics and science that developed in Europe after the Renaissance became much more dependent upon quantitative results and hence upon the use of all types of numbers.

The number ?, which is the ratio of the circumference of any circle to its diameter, is irrational, though this fact was not proved until 1768. Many other examples could be given.

mathematicians of that century, like those of most great periods, were the very physicists and astronomers who raised the questions,

same phenomenon and concludes that the phenomenon will always occur. Conclusions obtained by induction seem well warranted

At about the same time that St. Augustine lived, the Roman jurists ruled, under the Code of Mathematicians and Evil-Doers, that "to learn the art of geometry and to take part in public exercises, an art as damnable as mathematics, are forbidden.

Goldbach's hypothesis

irrational number cannot equal a whole number or a fraction.

Can we combine ?2 + ?3 into the simpler ?5? Let us test this operation on whole numbers expressed as roots. Certainly ?9 + ?16 does not equal , that is, 3 + 4 does not equal 5. Hence we should not assert the analogous relation for irrational numbers.

The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell.

The supreme contribution of the Greeks was to call attention to, employ, and emphasize the power of human reason. This recognition of the power of reasoning is the greatest single discovery made by man.

The second basic function of algebra is to convert expressions into more useful ones. Gauss's

As far back as about the year 400 A.D., St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in Africa and one of the great fathers of Christianity, had this to say: The good Christian should beware of mathematicians and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell.