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Random Quotation
It would be very discouraging if somewhere down the line you could ask a computer if the Riemann hypothesis is correct and it said, `Yes, it is true, but you won't be able to understand the proof.' John Horgan, Scientific American 269:4 (October 1993), 92-103.    |
Loci: ConvergenceMathematical QuotationsOur library of quotations is organized alphabetically by surname of the author. Leacock, StephenHow can you shorten the subject? That stern struggle with the multiplication table, for many people not yet ended in victory, how can you make it less? Square root, as obdurate as a hardwood stump in a pasture; nothing but years of effort can extract it. You can't hurry the process. Or pass from arithmetic to algebra; you can't shoulder your way past quadratic equations or ripple through the binomial theorem. Instead, the other way; your feet are impeded in the tangled growth, your pace slackens, you sink and fall somewhere near the binomial theorem with the calculus in sight on the horizon. So died, for each of us, still bravely fighting, our mathematical training; except for a set of people called "mathematicians" -- born so, like crooks. Lebesgue, Henri (1875 - 1941)In my opinion, a mathematician, in so far as he is a mathematician, need not preoccupy himself with philosophy -- an opinion, moreover, which has been expressed by many philosophers. Lehrer, Thomas Andrew (1928- )In one word he told me the secret of success in mathematics: plagiarize, only be sure always to call it please research. Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)The soul is the mirror of an indestructible universe. Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)Although the whole of this life were said to be nothing but a dream and the physical world nothing but a phantasm, I should call this dream or phantasm real enough, if, using reason well, we were never deceived by it. Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)The art of discovering the causes of phenomena, or true hypothesis, is like the art of decyphering, in which an ingenious conjecture greatly shortens the road. Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)In symbols one observes an advantage in discovery which is greatest when they express the exact nature of a thing briefly and, as it were, picture it; then indeed the labor of thought is wonderfully diminished. Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)He who understands Archimedes and Apollonius will admire less the achievements of the foremost men of later times. Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)The imaginary number is a fine and wonderful recourse of the divine spirit, almost an amphibian between being and not being. Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)Music is the pleasure the human soul experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting. |
