|
Random Quotation
The reader will find no figures in this work. The methods which I set forth do not require either constructions or geometrical or mechanical reasonings: but only algebraic operations, subject to a regular and uniform rule of procedure. Preface to Mecanique Analytique.    |
Loci: ConvergenceMathematical QuotationsOur library of quotations is organized alphabetically by surname of the author. Page: 1 of 2 | Next Abel, Niels H. (1802 - 1829)If you disregard the very simplest cases, there is in all of mathematics not a single infinite series whose sum has been rigorously determined. In other words, the most important parts of mathematics stand without a foundation. Abel, Niels H. (1802 - 1829)[A reply to a
question about how
he got his
expertise:] Abel, Niels H. (1802 - 1829)[About Gauss's
mathematical writing
style] Adams, John (1735 - 1826)I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain. Adams, Douglas (1952 - 2001)Numbers written on restaurant bills within the confines of restaurants do not follow the same mathematical laws as numbers written on any other pieces of paper in any other parts of the Universe. Adams, Douglas (1952 - 2001)The first nonabsolute number is the number of people for whom the table is reserved. This will vary during the course of the first three telephone calls to the restaurant, and then bear no apparent relation to the number of people who actually turn up, or to the number of people who subsequently join them after the show/match/party/gig, or to the number of people who leave when they see who else has turned up. Adams, Douglas (1952 - 2001)Bistromathics itself is simply a revolutionary new way of understanding the behavior of numbers. Just as Einstein observed that space was not an absolute but depended on the observer's movement in space, and that time was not an absolute, but depended on the observer's movement in time, so it is now realized that numbers are not absolute, but depend on the observer's movement in restaurants. Adler, AlfredIn the company of friends, writers can discuss their books, economists the state of the economy, lawyers their latest cases, and businessmen their latest acquisitions, but mathematicians cannot discuss their mathematics at all. And the more profound their work, the less understandable it is. Adler, AlfredThe mathematical life of a mathematician is short. Work rarely improves after the age of twenty-five or thirty. If little has been accomplished by then, little will ever be accomplished. Adler, AlfredEach generation has its few great mathematicians, and mathematics would not even notice the absence of the others. They are useful as teachers, and their research harms no one, but it is of no importance at all. A mathematician is great or he is nothing. Aiken, Conrad[At a musical
concert:] Allen, WoodyStandard mathematics has recently been rendered obsolete by the discovery that for years we have been writing the numeral five backward. This has led to reevaluation of counting as a method of getting from one to ten. Students are taught advanced concepts of Boolean algebra, and formerly unsolvable equations are dealt with by threats of reprisals. Anglin, W.S.Mathematics is not a careful march down a well-cleared highway, but a journey into a strange wilderness, where the explorers often get lost. Rigour should be a signal to the historian that the maps have been made, and the real explorers have gone elsewhere. AnonymousReferee's report: This paper contains much that is new and much that is true. Unfortunately, that which is true is not new and that which is new is not true. AnonymousDefendit numerus: There is safety in numbers. AnonymousLike the crest of a peacock, like the gem on the head of a snake, so is mathematics at the head of all knowledge. AnonymousIf thou art able, O stranger, to find out all these things and gather them together in your mind, giving all the relations, thou shalt depart crowned with glory and knowing that thou hast been adjudged perfect in this species of wisdom. Arbuthnot, JohnThe Reader may here observe the Force of Numbers, which can be successfully applied, even to those things, which one would imagine are subject to no Rules. There are very few things which we know, which are not capable of being reduc'd to a Mathematical Reasoning; and when they cannot it's a sign our knowledge of them is very small and confus'd; and when a Mathematical Reasoning can be had it's as great a folly to make use of any other, as to grope for a thing in the dark, when you have a Candle standing by you. Aristophanes (ca 444 - 380 BC)Meton: With the
straight ruler I set
to work AristotleTo Thales the primary question was not what do we know, but how do we know it. Page: 1 of 2 | Next |
