One of the endlessly alluring aspects of mathematics is that its thorniest paradoxes have a way of blooming into beautiful theories.
Number, Scientific American, 211, (Sept. 1964), 51 - 59.
Loci: Convergence
Mathematical Quotations
Our library of quotations is organized alphabetically by surname of the author.
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LaGrange, Joseph-Louis
[Said about the
chemist
Lavoisier:]
It
took the mob only a
moment to remove his
head; a century will
not suffice to
reproduce it.
LaGrange, Joseph-Louis
When we ask advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.
LaGrange, Joseph-Louis
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.
Lakatos, Imre
That sometimes clear ... and sometimes vague stuff ... which is ... mathematics.
Lanczos, Cornelius
Most of the arts, as painting, sculpture, and music, have emotional appeal to the general public. This is because these arts can be experienced by some one or more of our senses. Such is not true of the art of mathematics; this art can be appreciated only by mathematicians, and to become a mathematician requires a long period of intensive training. The community of mathematicians is similar to an imaginary community of musical composers whose only satisfaction is obtained by the interchange among themselves of the musical scores they compose.
Landau, Susan
There's a touch of the priesthood in the academic world, a sense that a scholar should not be distracted by the mundane tasks of day-to-day living. I used to have great stretches of time to work. Now I have research thoughts while making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Sure it's impossible to write down ideas while reading "Curious George" to a two-year-old. On the other hand, as my husband was leaving graduate school for his first job, his thesis advisor told him, "You may wonder how a professor gets any research done when one has to teach, advise students, serve on committees, referee papers, write letters of recommendation, interview prospective faculty. Well, I take long showers."
Langer, Rudoph E.
[About Fourier:] It was, no doubt, partially because of his very disregard for rigor that he was able to take conceptual steps which were inherently impossible to men of more critical genius.
Lao Tze (604-531 B.C.)
A good calculator does not need artificial aids.
le Lionnais, Francois
Who has not been amazed to learn that the function y = e^x , like a phoenix rising again from its own ashes, is its own derivative?
Leach, Edmund Ronald (1910 - 1989)
How can a modern anthropologist embark upon a generalization with any hope of arriving at a satisfactory conclusion? By thinking of the organizational ideas that are present in any society as a mathematical pattern.
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