Quotes About Mathematics

we use math not because we're smart, but because we aren't smart enough.

Once we know the number one, we believe that we know the number two, because one plus one equals two. We forget that first we must know the meaning of plus.

Music is a science which should have definite rules; these rules should be drawn from an evident principle; and this principle cannot really be known to us without the aid of mathematics.

Human logic [emphasis added] was forced on us by the physical world and is therefore consistent with it. Mathematics derives from logic. This is why mathematics is consistent with the physical world.

The strange word nymphomation, used to denote a complex mathematical procedure where numbers, rather than being added together or multiplied or whatever, were actually allowed to breed with each other to produce new numbers.

When the nineteenth-century Hungarian mathematician János Bolyai invented non-Euclidean geometry, his father urged him to publish his findings immediately, before someone else landed on the same idea, saying, "When the time is ripe for certain things, they appear at different places, in the manner of violets coming to light in early spring.

no thought, if it be non-mathematical in spirit, can be trusted, and, although mathematicians sometimes make mistakes, the spirit of mathematics is always right and always sound.

Logic is the youth of mathematics, mathematics is the manhood of logic." This brilliant mot of the eminent philosopher of mathematics is no

1) Use mathematics as shorthand language, rather than as an engine of inquiry. (2) Keep to them till you have done. (3) Translate into English. (4) Then illustrate by examples that are important in real life (5) Burn the mathematics. (6) If you can't succeed in 4, burn 3. This I do often.

It is a safe rule to apply that, when a mathematical or philosophical author writes with a misty profundity, he is talking nonsense.

Let us grant that the pursuit of mathematics is a divine madness of the human spirit, a refuge from the goading urgency of contingent happenings.

The science of pure mathematics, in its modern developments, may claim to be the most original creation of the human spirit.

The point about zero is that we do not need to use it in the operation of daily life. No one goes out to buy zero fish.

The certainty of mathematics depends on its complete abstract generality.

In Metaphysics, Aristotle wrote that Egypt is the "cradle of mathematics—that is, the country of origin for Greek mathematics." Some historians believe that when European societies eventually began enslaving Africans, they also started downplaying the major contributions of both the ancient Nile River Valley civilizations and the kemetic culture, as well as concealing its African lineage.

Mathematics is natural. Love is natural. It only makes sense that it's mathematically quantifiable.

Qué irónico que la gente descarte las matemáticas como la antítesis de la creatividad. Están desperdiciando una forma de arte más antigua que cualquier libro, más profunda que cualquier poema, y más abstracta que cualquier otra cosa.

There are too many of numbers for them to arise as a result of human intellectual activity. Consider, for example, the following series of functions: 2 lambda n is two to the second to the second .... to the second n times. The second member is ##2 (n); the third 3#2(n), etc.

Les chiffres, dont j'avais toujours admiré la calme beauté pythagoricienne, devinrent mes ennemis. La calculette aussi me voulait du mal.

There's a technicality to designing and wearing hats. A hat is balancing the proportions of your face; it's like architecture or mathematics.

So my favorite online dating website is OkCupid, not least because it was started by a group of mathematicians.

My calculus teacher would send me home every weekend with 400 problems to solve. At the time, I felt it was so strict and demanding, but now I realize that the workload instilled in me a sense of discipline, and showed me that even if I wasn't inherently skilled at something, I could be, with enough dedication and practice.

We have elected to put our money and faith in a mathematical framework that is free of politics and human error.

I think you can get better in mathematics on a school level, but when you're talking about being a mathematician, I think that's definitely a gift of genes or whatever, you know? Whatever your pool is.