"Die Mathematiker sind eine Art Franzosen. Spricht..." - Quote by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Die Mathematiker sind eine Art Franzosen. Spricht man zu ihnen, so übersetzen sie alles in ihre eigene Sprache, und so wird es alsobald etwas ganz anderes. Mathematicians are a kind of Frenchmen. Whenever you say anything or talk to them, they translate it into their own language, and right away it is something completely different.
More by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
“The written word has this advantage, that it lasts and can await the time when it is allowed to take effect.”
“No wonder we are all more or less pleased with mediocrity, since it leaves us at rest, and gives the same comfortable feeling as when one associates with his equals.”
“Hatred is active displeasure, envy passive. We need not wonder that envy turns to soon to hatred.”
More on Communication
“I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest person present to speak to”
“I cannot speak your england.”
“Everyone agrees that a secret should be kept intact, but everyone does not agree as to the nature and importance of secrecy. Too often we consult ourselves as to what we should say, what we should leave unsaid. There are few permanent secrets, and the scruple against revealing them will not last forever.”
More on Mathematics
“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.”
“No human investigation can claim to be scientific if it doesn't pass the test of mathematical proof.”
“Mathematics is an obscure field, an abstruse science, complicated and exact; yet so many have attained perfection in it that we might conclude almost anyone who seriously applied himself would achieve a measure of success.”