quotations about mathematics
It seems to me now that mathematics is capable of an artistic excellence as great as that of any music, perhaps greater; not because the pleasure it gives (although very pure) is comparable, either in intensity or in the number of people who feel it, to that of music, but because it gives in absolute perfection that combination, characteristic of great art, of godlike freedom, with the sense of inevitable destiny; because, in fact, it constructs an ideal world where everything is perfect and yet true.
BERTRAND RUSSELL
letter to Gilbert Murray, April 3, 1902
The study of mathematics is like climbing up a steep and craggy mountain; when once you reach the top, it fully recompenses your trouble, by opening a fine, clear, and extensive prospect.
JEREMIAH DAY
attributed, Day's Collacon
God has made an unerring law for His whole creation, upon principles which, so far as we now know, can never be understood without the aid of mathematics.
E. D. MANSFIELD
attributed, Day's Collacon
No mathematician in the world would bother making these senseless distinctions: 2 1/2 is a "mixed number" while 5/2 is an "improper fraction." They're EQUAL for crying out loud. They are the exact same numbers and have the exact same properties. Who uses such words outside of fourth grade?
PAUL LOCKHART
A Mathematician's Lament
The whole body of the pure mathematics is absolutely useless to ninety-nine out of every hundred who study them. Now, as to entertainment. Does more than one out of every hundred preserve his mathematical knowledge?
THOMAS SMITH GRIMKE
Oration on American Education
The study of mathematics cultivates the reason; that of the languages, at the same time, the reason and the taste. The former gives the grasp and power to the mind; the latter both power and flexibility. The former by itself, would prepare us for a state of certainties, which nowhere exists; the later, for a state of probabilities which is that of common life. Each, by itself, does but an imperfect work: in the union of both, is the best discipline for the mind, and the best mental training for the world as it is.
TRYON EDWARDS
The New Dictionary of Thoughts
I have deeply regretted that I did not proceed far enough at least to understand something of the great leading principles of mathematics, for men thus endowed seem to have an extra sense.
CHARLES DARWIN
The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin
Mathematics has not a foot to stand on which is not purely metaphysical.
DE QUINCEY
attributed, Day's Collacon
Mathematics is the mind's recreation.
AVERONI
attributed, Day's Collacon
I consider the study of mathematics the basis of the soundest mode of reasoning, the foundation of metaphysical deductions; it contains eternal truths, concluded by pure intelligence.
R. MALTRAVERS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Mathematical Knowledge adds a manly Vigour to the Mind, frees it from Prejudice, Credulity, and Superstition.
JOHN ARBUTHNOT
An Essay on the Usefulness of Mathematical Learning
The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment. The important applications of the science, the theoretical interest of its ideas, and the logical rigour of its methods, all generate the expectation of a speedy introduction to processes of interest. We are told that by its aid the stars are weighed and the billions of molecules in a drop of water are counted. Yet, like the ghost of Hamlet's father, this great science eludes the efforts of our mental weapons to grasp it -- "'Tis here, 'tis there, 'tis gone."
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD
An Introduction to Mathematics
I think we need more math majors who don't become mathematicians. More math major doctors, more math major high school teachers, more math major CEOs, more math major senators. But we won't get there unless we dump the stereotype that math is only worthwhile for kid geniuses.
JORDAN ELLENBERG
How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking
A Mathematician who is not also something of a poet will never be a complete mathematician.
KARL WEIERSTRASS
attributed, Journal of Applied Mechanics, 1939
A mathematician is a practical man, estimating things by their real utility.
W. H. PRESCOTT
attributed, Day's Collacon
Like music or art, mathematical equations can have a natural progression and logic that can evoke rare passions in a scientist. Although the lay public considers mathematical equations to be rather opaque, to a scientist an equation is very much like a movement in a larger symphony. Simplicity. Elegance. These are the qualities that have inspired some of the greatest artists to create their masterpieces, and they are precisely the same qualities that motivate scientists to search for the laws of nature. Like a work of art or a haunting poem, equations have a beauty and rhythm all their own.
MICHIO KAKU
Hyperspace
I have mentioned mathematics as a way to settle in the mind a habit of reasoning closely, and in train; not that I think it necessary that all men should be deep mathematicians, but that having got the way of reasoning, which that study necessarily brings the mind to, they might be able to transfer it to other parts of knowledge, as they have occasion.
JOHN LOCKE
A Treatise on the Conduct of Understanding
It was mathematics, the non-empirical science par excellence, wherein the mind appears to play only with itself, that turned out to be the science of sciences, delivering the key to those laws of nature and the universe that are concealed by appearances.
HANNAH ARENDT
The Life of the Mind
Now the denominator ... why don't they just call it the bottom number? The denominator ... that sounds like a Schwarzenegger movie doesn't it? [impersonating Arnold Schwarzenegger] I am the Denominator. I'll give your leg a compound fraction!
TIM ALLEN
Home Improvement
Those impostors then, whom they style Mathematicians, I consulted without scruple; because they seemed to use no sacrifice, nor to pray to any spirit for their divinations.
ST. AUGUSTINE
Confessions