Math Quotes - Page 2

The introduction of the cipher 0 or the group concept was general nonsense too, and mathematics was more or less stagnating for thousands of years because nobody was around to take such childish steps.

The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics.

One cannot escape the feeling that these mathematical formulas have an independent existence and an intelligence of their own, that they are wiser than we are, wiser even than their discoverers.

It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment.

The question you raise, 'How can such a formulation lead to computations?' doesn't bother me in the least! Throughout my whole life as a mathematician, the possibility of making explicit, elegant computations has always come out by itself, as a byproduct of a thorough conceptual understanding of what was going on. Thus I never bothered about whether what would come out would be suitable for this or that, but just tried to understand - and it always turned out that understanding was all that mattered.

Man is an artifact designed for space travel. He is not designed to remain in his present biologic state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole.

All musicians are subconsciously mathematicians.

I am not really doing research, just trying to cultivate myself.

God created everything by number, weight and measure.

Fractal geometry is not just a chapter of mathematics, but one that helps Everyman to see the same world differently.

Mathematics knows no races or geographic boundaries; for mathematics, the cultural world is one country.

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.

The calculus was the first achievement of modern mathematics and it is difficult to overestimate its importance. I think it defines more unequivocally than anything else the inception of modern mathematics; and the system of mathematical analysis, which is its logical development, still constitutes the greatest technical advance in exact thinking.

In school, my favorite subject was math. That's where I learned to count money.

Geometry is the archetype of the beauty of the world.

He who cannot describe the problem will never find the solution to that problem.

I would not dare to say that there is a direct relation between mathematics and madness, but there is no doubt that great mathematicians suffer from maniacal characteristics, delirium and symptoms of schizophrenia.

In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra.

Music is not math. It's science. You keep mixing the stuff up until it blows up on you, or it becomes this incredible potion.

What affected me most profoundly was the realization that the sciences of cryptography and mathematics are very elegant, pure sciences. I found that the ends for which these pure sciences are used are less elegant.

If only I had the Theorems! Then I should find the proofs easily enough.

Without mathematics, there’s nothing you can do. Everything around you is mathematics. Everything around you is numbers.

Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all.

But how is one to make a scientist understand that there is something unalterably deranged about differential calculus, quantum theory, or the obscene and so inanely liturgical ordeals of the precession of the equinoxes.

Why are numbers beautiful? It’s like asking why is Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony beautiful. If you don’t see why, someone can’t tell you. I know numbers are beautiful. If they aren’t beautiful, nothing is.