Mathematician Quotes

“Everything that is written merely to please the author is worthless.”

“A few rules include all that is necessary for the perfection of the definitions, the axioms, and the demonstrations, and consequently of the entire method of the geometrical proofs of theart of persuading.”

“When I see the blind and wretched state of men, when I survey the whole universe in its deadness, and man left to himself with no light, as though lost in this corner of the universe without knowing who put him there, what he has to do, or what will become of him when he dies, incapable of knowing anything, I am moved to terror, like a man transported in his sleep to some terrifying desert island, who wakes up quite lost, with no means of escape. Then I marvel that so wretched a state does not drive people to despair.”

“We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart.”

“Man is full of desires: he loves only those who can satisfy them all. "This man is a good mathematician," someone will say. But I have no concern for mathematics; he would take me for a proposition. "That one is a good soldier." He would take me for a besieged town. I need, that is to say, a decent man who can accommodate himself to all my desires in a general sort of way.”

“Reason commands us far more imperiously than a master; for in disobeying the one we are unfortunate, and in disobeying the other we are fools.”

“Jurisdiction is not given for the sake of the judge, but for that of the litigant.”

“Men seek rest in a struggle against difficulties; and when they have conquered these, rest becomes insufferable.”

“What is it, in your opinion, to be a great nobleman? It is to be master of several objects that men covet, and thus to be able to satisfy the wants and the desires of many. It is thesewants and these desires that attract them towards you, and that make them submit to you: were it not for these, they would not even look at you; but they hope, by these services... to obtainfrom you some part of the good which they desire, and of which they see that you have the disposal.”

“If I had more time I would write a shorter letter.”

“The mind of the greatest man on earth is not so independent of circumstances as not to feel inconvenienced by the merest buzzing noise about him; it does not need the report of a cannon to disturb his thoughts. The creaking of a vane or a pully is quite enough. Do not wonder that he reasons ill just now; a fly is buzzing by his ear; it is quite enough to unfit him for giving good counsel.”

“Extremes are for us as if they were not, and as if we were not in regard to them; they escape from us, or we from them.”

“We run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put something before us to prevent us seeing it.”

“To go beyond the bounds of moderation is to outrage humanity.”

“Vanity is so secure in the heart of man that everyone wants to be admired: even I who write this, and you who read this.”

“We never love a person, but only qualities.”

“Description of man: dependence, longing for independence, need.”

“The last advance of reason is to recognize that it is surpassed by innumerable things; it is feeble if it cannot realize that.”

“All men naturally hate each other. We have used concupiscence as best we can to make it serve the common good, but this is mere sham and a false image of charity, for essentially it is just hate.”

“No animal admires another animal.”

“All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.”

“The great mass of people judge well of things, for they are in natural ignorance, which is man's true state.”

“All this visible world is but an imperceptible point in the ample bosom of nature.”

“A mere trifle consoles us, for a mere trifle distresses us.”

“How vain painting is-we admire the realistic depiction of objects which in their original state we don't admire at all.”