Mathematics Quotes

In every department of physical science there is only so much science, properly so-called, as there is mathematics.

The creative principle [of science] resides in mathematics.

The mathematical sciences particularly exhibit order symmetry and limitations; and these are the greatest forms of the beautiful.

If someone separated the art of counting and measuring and weighing from all the other arts, what was left of each (of the others) would be, so to speak, insignificant.

7 x 7 plus love = An amount Infinitely above: 7 x 7 - love.

Mathematics should be mixed not only with physics but with ethics.

... the science we are after is not about mathematicals either none of them, you see, is separable.

The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by Infinity is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity.

Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas. ... [By seeking] logical beauty spiritual formulas are discovered necessary for the deeper penetration into the laws of nature.

1 is not prime, by definition. 2 is an unnatural prime, 4 is an unnatural prime, and 6 is an unnatural prime. All other natural primes cannot be unnatural primes.

The study of geometry is a petty and idle exercise of the mind, if it is applied to no larger system than the starry one. Mathematics should be mixed not only with physics but with ethics; that is mixed mathematics.

One reason why mathematics enjoys special esteem,above all other sciences,isthat its laws are absolutely certain and indisputable,while those of allother sciences are to some extent debatable and in constant danger of beingoverthrown by newly discovered facts.

In a mathematical proposition, for example, the objectivity is given, but therefore its truth is also an indifferent truth.

The instruction of children should aim gradually to combine knowing and doing. Among all sciences mathematics seems to be the only one of a kind to satisfy this aim most completely.

Mathematics deals exclusively with the relations of concepts to each other without consideration of their relation to experience.

Therefore, O students, study mathematics and do not build without foundations.

The merit of painting lies in the exactness of reproduction. Painting is a science and all sciences are based on mathematics. No human inquiry can be a science unless it pursues its path through mathematical exposition and demonstration.

Insofar as mathematics is true, it does not describe the real world. Insofar as it describes the real world, it is not true.

The mathematician is fascinated with the marvelous beauty of the forms he constructs, and in their beauty he finds everlasting truth.

I never could do anything with figures, never had any talent for mathematics, never accomplished anything in my efforts at that rugged study, and to-day the only mathematics I know is multiplication, and the minute I get away up in that, as soon as I reach nine times seven- [He lapsed into deep thought, trying to figure nine times seven. Mr. McKelway whispered the answer to him.] I've got it now. It's eighty-four. Well, I can get that far all right with a little hesitation. After that I am uncertain, and I can't manage a statistic.

2-in-1 is a stupid term, because 1 is not big enough to hold 2. That's why 2 was created.

Mathematics is merely the means to a general and ultimate knowledge of man.

Relations between pure and applied mathematicians are based on trust and understanding.Namely, pure mathematicians do not trust applied mathematicians, and applied mathematicians do not understand pure mathematicians.

Yes, we now have to divide up our time like that, between politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever.

There are no creeds in mathematics.

...the science of calculation also is indispensable as far as the extraction of the square and cube roots: Algebra as far as the quadratic equation and the use of logarithms are often of value in ordinary cases: but all beyond these is but a luxury; a delicious luxury indeed; but not be in indulged in by one who is to have a profession to follow for his subsistence.

Those who condemn the supreme certainty of mathematics feed on confusion, and can never silence the contradictions of the sophistical sciences which lead to eternal quackery.

To the extent math refers to reality, we are not certain to the extent we are certain, math does not refer to reality.

Those who assert that the mathematical sciences say nothing of the beautiful or the good are in error. For these sciences say and prove a great deal about them; if they do not expressly mention them, but prove attributes which are their results or definitions, it is not true that they tell us nothing about them. The chief forms of beauty are order and symmetry and definiteness, which the mathematical sciences demonstrate in a special degree.

We admit, in geometry, not only infinite magnitudes, that is to say, magnitudes greater than any assignable magnitude, but infinite magnitudes infinitely greater, the one than the other. This astonishes our dimension of brains, which is only about six inches long, five broad, and six in depth, in the largest heads.

I assert that, in any particular natural science, one encounters genuine scientific substance only to the extent that mathematics is present.

Oh these mathematicians make me tired! When you ask them to work out a sum they take a piece of paper, cover it with rows of A's, B's, and X's and Y's ... scatter a mess of flyspecks over them, and then give you an answer that's all wrong!

The so-called Pythagoreans, who were the first to take up mathematics, not only advanced this subject, but saturated with it, they fancied that the principles of mathematics were the principles of all things.

No employment can be managed without arithmetic, no mechanical invention without geometry.

I had a feeling once about mathematics - that I saw it all... but it was after dinner and I let it go.

Mechanics is the paradise of the mathematical sciences because by means of it one comes to the fruits of mathematics.

The method of not erring is sought by all the world. The logicians profess to guide it, the geometricians alone attain it, and apart from science, and the imitations of it, there are notrue demonstrations.

He is unworthy of the name of man who is ignorant of the fact that the diagonal of a square is incommensurable with its side.

Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.

Fraulein Noether was the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began.

What is this frog and mouse battle among the mathematicians?

Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.

Our account does not rob the mathematicians of their science... In point of fact they do not need the infinite and do not use it.

As you are entered with the class of Nat. philosophy, give to it the hours of lecture, but devote all your other time to Mathematics, avoiding company as the bane of all progress.

I'm sorry to say that the subject I most disliked was mathematics. I have thought about it. I think the reason was that mathematics leaves no room for argument. If you made a mistake, that was all there was to it.

No human investigation can be called real science if it cannot be demonstrated mathematically.

... nets, grids, and other types of calculus.

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

All these constructions and the laws connecting them can be arrived at by the principle of looking for the mathematically simplest concepts and the link between them.

No human investigation can claim to be scientific if it doesn't pass the test of mathematical proof.

The understanding of mathematics is necessary for a sound grasp of ethics.

Perspective is a most subtle discovery in mathematical studies, for by means of lines it causes to appear distant that which is near, and large that which is small.

Look somewhere else for someone who can follow you in your researches about numbers. For my part, I confess that they are far beyond me, and I am competent only to admire them.

There is an astonishing imagination, even in the science of mathematics.

The qualities of number appear to lead to the apprehension of truth.

Mathematics is like draughts in being suitable for the young, not too difficult, amusing, and without peril to the state.

... preliminary accounting, banking and surveying (known as arithmetic, algebra and geometry).

Phyllis explained to him, trying to give of her deeper self, 'Don't you find it so beautiful, math? Like an endless sheet of gold chains, each link locked into the one before it, the theorems and functions, one thing making the next inevitable. It's music, hanging there in the middle of space, meaning nothing but itself, and so moving...'

We have heard much about the poetry of mathematics, but very little of it has as yet been sung. The ancients had a juster notion of their poetic value than we. The most distinct and beautiful statements of any truth must take at last the mathematical form. We might so simplify the rules of moral philosophy, as well as of arithmetic, that one formula would express them both.