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Quotes by Mathematician
"Information is the resolution of uncertainty."
171
"There is a good principle which created order, light, and man, and an evil principle which created chaos, darkness, and woman."
147
"Flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical and insignificant, if not utterly impossible."
126
"Life is an offensive, directed against the repetitious mechanism of the Universe."
126
"No matter how correct a mathematical theorem may appear to be, one ought never to be satisfied that there was not something imperfect about it until it also gives the impression of being beautiful."
122
"Henceforth space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent reality."
121
"Mathematics is a game played according to certain simple rules with meaningless marks on paper."
116
"Mathematics knows no races or geographic boundaries; for mathematics, the cultural world is one country."
114
"Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all."
96
"It is impossible to be a mathematician without being a poet in soul."
96
"It may be true, that men, who are mere mathematicians, have certain specific shortcomings, but that is not the fault of mathematics, for it is equally true of every other exclusive occupation."
96
"It could be that the methods needed to take the next step may simply be beyond present day mathematics. Perhaps the methods I needed to complete the proof would not be invented for a hundred years."
82
"For since the fabric of the universe is most perfect and the work of a most wise Creator, nothing at all takes place in the universe in which some rule of maximum or minimum does not appear."
74
"We think in generalities, but we live in detail."
73
"I hope that posterity will judge me kindly, not only as to the things which I have explained, but also to those which I have intentionally omitted so as to leave to others the pleasure of discovery."
73
"Science is built up of facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house."
70
"To doubt everything, or, to believe everything, are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection."
69
"I was like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."
68
"Progress imposes not only new possibilities for the future but new restrictions."
68
"Well, some mathematics problems look simple, and you try them for a year or so, and then you try them for a hundred years, and it turns out that they're extremely hard to solve."
67
"No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man; no other idea has so fruitfully stimulated his intellect; yet no other concept stands in greater need of clarification than that of the infinite."
65
"Mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things."
64
"A mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas."
63
"The reports of the eclipse parties not only described the scientific observations in great detail, but also the travels and experiences, and were sometimes marked by a piquancy not common in official documents."
62
"The oldest, shortest words - "yes" and "no" - are those which require the most thought."
62
"The only way I could relax was when I was with my children."
60
"Periods of tranquility are seldom prolific of creative achievement. Mankind has to be stirred up."
58
"Machines take me by surprise with great frequency."
58
"Physics is becoming too difficult for the physicists."
58
"Mathematical reasoning may be regarded rather schematically as the exercise of a combination of two facilities, which we may call intuition and ingenuity."
58
"I visualize a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans, and I'm rooting for the machines."
58
"Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare."
58
"There is no scientific discoverer, no poet, no painter, no musician, who will not tell you that he found ready made his discovery or poem or picture - that it came to him from outside, and that he did not consciously create it from within."
57
"A deliberate choice on my part was for the player to continue to find new possibilities in the early Attic rooms far into the game. I think this builds atmosphere, though it means there's no neat division of the prologue from the middle game."
56
"The art of doing mathematics consists in finding that special case which contains all the germs of generality."
56
"To consult the statistician after an experiment is finished is often merely to ask him to conduct a post mortem examination. He can perhaps say what the experiment died of."
56
"It would appear that we have reached the limits of what it is possible to achieve with computer technology, although one should be careful with such statements, as they tend to sound pretty silly in 5 years."
55
"I am indeed amazed when I consider how weak my mind is and how prone to error."
55
"Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it."
54
"It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious."
54
"The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato."
54
"Thought is only a flash between two long nights, but this flash is everything."
54
"If I were to awaken after having slept for a thousand years, my first question would be: Has the Riemann hypothesis been proven?"
54
"Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have."
54
"A mathematician is a person who can find analogies between theorems; a better mathematician is one who can see analogies between proofs and the best mathematician can notice analogies between theories."
53
"No one shall expel us from the paradise that Cantor has created for us."
53
"Science is a differential equation. Religion is a boundary condition."
52
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