#Mathematics Quotes

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

“The natural man inevitably rebels against mathematics, a mild form of torture that could only be learned by painful processes of drill.”

“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.”

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

“Anyone who believes a growth rate in excess of 15% per annum over the long term is attainable should pursue a career in sales, but avoid one in mathematics.”

“There is an astonishing imagination, even in the science of mathematics. ... We repeat, there was far more imagination in the head of Archimedes than in that of Homer.”

“There are no sects in geometry.”

“When we cannot use the compass of mathematics or the torch of experience...it is certain we cannot take a single step forward.”

“...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.”

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

“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.”

“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!”

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

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

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

“I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning.”

“Those who have a natural talent for calculation are generally quick-witted at every other kind of knowledge; and even the dull, if they have had an arithmetical training, although they may derive no other advantage from it, always become much quicker than they would have been.”

“You cannot conceive the many without the one...The study of the unit is among those that lead the mind on and turn it to the vision of reality.”

“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.”

“The highest form of pure thought is in mathematics.”

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

“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.”

“Let no one ignorant of Mathematics enter here.”

“There are no creeds in mathematics.”

“The advance and perfecting of mathematics are closely joined to the prosperity of the nation.”

“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 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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“Whoever despises the high wisdom of mathematics nourishes himself on delusion and will never still the sophistic sciences whose only product is an eternal uproar.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Let no man who is not a Mathematician read the elements of my work.”

“He who does not understand the supreme certainty of mathematics is wallowing in confusion.”

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

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

“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.”

“Mathematics can remove no prejudices and soften no obduracy. It has no influence in sweetening the bitter strife of parties, and in the moral world generally its action is perfectly null.”

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

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

“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.”

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

“In my free time I do differential and integral calculus.”

“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.”

“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...'”

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

“We have heard much about the poetry of mathematics, but very little of it has yet been sung. The ancients had a juster notion of their poetic value than we.”

“I have heard myself accused of being an opponent, an enemy of mathematics, which no one can value more highly than I, for it accomplishes the very thing whose achievement has been denied me.”