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Quotes by Mathematician
"But mathematics is the sister, as well as the servant, of the arts and is touched by the same madness and genius."
62
"A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas."
61
"It takes an extraordinary intelligence to contemplate the obvious."
60
"There is geometry in the humming of the strings, there is music in the spacing of the spheres."
60
"Invention consists in avoiding the constructing of useless contraptions and in constructing the useful combinations which are in infinite minority."
59
"Smiling always with a never fading serenity of countenance, and flourishing in an immortal youth."
58
"Some people are always critical of vague statements. I tend rather to be critical of precise statements; they are the only ones which can correctly be labeled 'wrong'."
57
"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."
56
"If pushed, though, I'd say that the next stage will be reached when it it's no longer true that about 75% of the best games were written in 1980's on the way to that."
56
"First rate mathematicians choose first rate people, but second rate mathematicians choose third rate people."
56
"Thought is only a flash between two long nights, but this flash is everything."
56
"There is a joke that your hammer will always find nails to hit. I find that perfectly acceptable."
Will,
56
"Galileo was no idiot. Only an idiot could believe that science requires martyrdom - that may be necessary in religion, but in time a scientific result will establish itself."
56
"To those who ask what the infinitely small quantity in mathematics is, we answer that it is actually zero. Hence there are not so many mysteries hidden in this concept as they are usually believed to be."
56
"The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, seek simplicity and distrust it."
55
"The techniques I developed for studying turbulence, like weather, also apply to the stock market."
55
"Life stands before me like an eternal spring with new and brilliant clothes."
55
"We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done."
55
"We are probably nearing the limit of all we can know about astronomy."
54
"The greatest mathematicians, as Archimedes, Newton, and Gauss, always united theory and applications in equal measure."
54
"I am coming more and more to the conviction that the necessity of our geometry cannot be demonstrated, at least neither by, nor for, the human intellect."
54
"What most experimenters take for granted before they begin their experiments is infinitely more interesting than any results to which their experiments lead."
53
"The only thing that might have annoyed some mathematicians was the presumption of assuming that maybe the axiom of choice could fail, and that we should look into contrary assumptions."
53
"You just keep pushing. You just keep pushing. I made every mistake that could be made. But I just kept pushing."
53
"I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses."
53
"At the end of April I archived 'Curses' and Inform, and announced them on the newsgroups."
52
"To call in the statistician after the experiment is done may be no more than asking him to perform a post-mortem examination: he may be able to say what the experiment died of."
52
"God exists since mathematics is consistent, and the Devil exists since we cannot prove it."
52
"He who seeks for methods without having a definite problem in mind seeks in the most part in vain."
Mind,
52
"What I would pay much more attention to are the few points where the player can inadvertently make a career decision. Most players end up back-tracking, though some actually enjoy this."
51
"The analysis of variance is not a mathematical theorem, but rather a convenient method of arranging the arithmetic."
51
"The enchanting charms of this sublime science reveal only to those who have the courage to go deeply into it."
51
"The infinite! No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man."
51
"Without adventure civilization is in full decay."
51
"I seem to be thinking rationally again in the style that is characteristic of scientists. However, this is not entirely a matter of joy as if someone returned from physical disability to good physical health."
51
"My first undertaking in the way of scientific experiment was in the field of economics and psychology."
51
"The definition of a good mathematical problem is the mathematics it generates rather than the problem itself."
51
"As years passed away I have formed the habit of looking back upon that former self as upon another person, the remembrance of whose emotions has been a solace in adversity and added zest to the enjoyment of prosperity."
50
"Whenever a total eclipse of the sun was visible in an accessible region parties were sent out to observe it."
Sun,
50
"It is better wither to be silent, or to say things of more value than silence. Sooner throw a pearl at hazard than an idle or useless word; and do not say a little in many words, but a great deal in a few."
50
"I believe that at the end of the century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted."
50
"Then in my early teens, when the home computer bubble was blowing, I had one of the first, an Acorn Atom, and used to write primitive adventures on that."
50
"The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues."
50
"The possessors of wealth can scarcely be indifferent to processes which, nearly or remotely have been the fertile source of their possessions."
49
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