How thoroughly it is ingrained in mathematical science that every real advance goes hand in hand with the invention of sharper tools and simpler methods which, at the same time, assist in understanding earlier theories and in casting aside some more complicated developments.
Loci: Convergence
Mathematical Quotations
Our library of quotations is organized alphabetically by surname of the author.
Bell, Eric Temple (1883-1960)
Guided only by their feeling for symmetry, simplicity, and generality, and an indefinable sense of the fitness of things, creative mathematicians now, as in the past, are inspired by the art of mathematics rather than by any prospect of ultimate usefulness.
Bell, Eric Temple (1883-1960)
The Handmaiden of the Sciences.
Bell, Eric Temple (1883-1960)
Wherever groups disclosed themselves, or could be introduced, simplicity crystallized out of comparative chaos.
Bell, Eric Temple (1883-1960)
It is the perennial youthfulness of mathematics itself which marks it off with a disconcerting immortality from the other sciences.
Bell, Eric Temple (1883-1960)
Euclid taught me that without assumptions there is no proof. Therefore, in any argument, examine the assumptions.
Belloc, Hillaire (1870-1953)
Statistics are the triumph of the quantitative method, and the quantitative method is the victory of sterility and death.
Bentham, Jeremy (1748-1832)
O Logic: born gatekeeper to the Temple of Science, victim of capricious destiny: doomed hitherto to be the drudge of pedants: come to the aid of thy master, Legislation.
Bernoulli, Johann
But just as much as it is easy to find the differential of a given quantity, so it is difficult to find the integral of a given differential. Moreover, sometimes we cannot say with certainty whether the integral of a given quantity can be found or not.
Bernoulli, Jakob (1654-1705)
I recognize the lion
by his paw.
[After reading an
anonymous solution
to a problem that he
realized was
Newton's solution.]
Bernoulli, Daniel
[I]t would be better for the true physics if there were no mathematicians on earth.
Besicovitch, A.S.
A mathematician's reputation rests on the number of bad proofs he has given.
Christian Bible
I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
Blake
God forbid that Truth should be confined to Mathematical Demonstration!
William Blake
What is now proved was once only imagin'd.
Bohr, Niels Henrik David (1885-1962)
An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes, which can be made, in a very narrow field.
Bolyai, Janos (1802-1860)
Out of nothing I have created a strange new universe.
Bolyai, Wolfgang (1775-1856)
[To son Janos:]
For God's sake,
please give it up.
Fear it no less than
the sensual passion,
because it, too, may
take up all your
time and deprive you
of your health,
peace of mind and
happiness in
life.
[Bolyai's
father urging him to
give up work on
non-Euclidean
geometry.]
Bourbaki
Structures are the weapons of the mathematician.
Bridgman, P. W.
It is the merest truism, evident at once to unsophisticated observation, that mathematics is a human invention.
Brown, George Spencer (1923 - )
To arrive at the simplest truth, as Newton knew and practiced, requires years of contemplation. Not activity. Not reasoning. Not calculating. Not busy behaviour of any kind. Not reading. Not talking. Not making an effort. Not thinking. Simply bearing in mind what it is one needs to know. And yet those with the courage to tread this path to real discovery are not only offered practically no guidance on how to do so, they are actively discouraged and have to set about it in secret, pretending meanwhile to be diligently engaged in the frantic diversions and to conform with the deadening personal opinions which are continually being thrust upon them.