Quotes About Mathematics

Only dead mathematics can be taught where competition prevails: living mathematics must always be a communal possession.

Taking on the Negativity of Exponents

Of course, the most rewarding part is the 'Aha' moment, the excitement of discovery and enjoyment of understanding something new – the feeling of being on top of a hill and having a clear view. But most of the time, doing mathematics for me is like being on a long hike with no trail and no end in sight.

The beauty of mathematics only shows itself to more patient followers. (quoted 2017-12-30 in the Toronto Daily Star)

When my mathematician husband is bored at parties, he sits quietly in a corner and does equations in his head. Only I know that he is no longer in the room. I can tell by his eyes and the contented look on his face.

The popularity of Einstein, believe it or not, is due to the influence of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato (died fourth century BCE). Plato argued that the best life for a human is one of theoretical contemplation. People who study things like pure mathematics, theoretical physics, and philosophy have transcended attachment to the mundane affairs of the everyday world. They are better than the rest of us: more pure, almost godlike.

for it is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits; it is evidently equally foolish to accept probable reasoning from a mathematician and to demand from a rhetorician demonstrative proofs.

Maybe that is what beauty was, for humans. Accidents, imperfections, placed inside a pretty pattern. Asymmetry. The defiance of mathematics.

The news was prioritized in a way I could not understand. For instance, there was nothing on new mathematical observations or still-undiscovered polygons, but quite a bit about politics, which on this planet was essentially all about war and money. Indeed, war and money seemed to be so popular on the news, it should more accurately have been titled The War and Money Show.

If God exists, what is He but a mathematician?

History is a branch of mathematics. So is literature. Economics is a branch of religion.

People joke, in our field, about Pythagoras and his religious cult based on perfect geometry and other abstract mathematical forms, but if we are going to have religion at all then a religion of mathematics seems ideal, because if God exists then what is He but a mathematician?

Therefore, mathematically...there was no chance at all that [she] could have existed. A zero in ten-to-the-power-of-forever chance. And yet there she was, in front of me, and I was quite taken aback by it all; I really was. Suddenly it made me realise why religion was such a big thing around here. Because, yes, sure, God could not exist. But then neither could humans. So, if they believed in themselves - the logic must go - why not believe in something that was only a fraction more unlikely?

M-am imbarbatat gandindu-ma la cateva numere prime aleatorii. Fiecare dintre ele este precum iubirea, de neimpartit, decat cu unu si cu sine insusi.

Because, you know, prime numbers are fucking serious, man. Some serious shit. They can make you lose it. They're like sirens. They call you in with their isolated beauty and before you know it you are in some major mind-shit.

Because prime numbers are fucking serious, man. Some serious shit. They can make you lose it. They're like sirens. They call you in with their isolated beauty and before you know it you are in some major mind-shit.

But recently, now, I was starting to feel that you couldn't do mathematics with emotions. In protecting yourself from hurt you could create a new, subtler type of pain.

There are more possible ways to play a game of chess than the amount of atoms in the observable universe. So

ese era uno de los problemas fundamentales que tienen los humanos con la comprensión numérica: simple y llanamente, su sistema nervioso no está capacitado.

The news should start with mathematics, then poetry, and move down from there.

Los números primos vuelven a la gente loca, pero literalmente

There are nine million variations after the first six moves. And after eight moves there are two hundred and eighty-eight billion different positions. And those possibilities keep growing. There are more possible ways to play a game of chess than the amount of atoms in the observable universe. So it gets very messy. And

The square of every prime number is one more than a multiple of 24.

A politician plus zero is not equal to zero; it is something minus!