Math Quotes - Page 29

All science requires mathematics.

I've taught statistics, math courses and what I've found is that often if you teach them algebraically the formulas, you'll have one group of kids doing well.

Mathematics has given economics rigor, but alas, also mortis.

The important thing to remember about mathematics is not to be frightened

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can make me think I deserved it.

It is the story that matters, not just the ending.

I remember one occasion when I tried to add a little seasoning to a review, but I wasn't allowed to. The paper was by Dorothy Maharam, and it was a perfectly sound contribution to abstract measure theory. The domains of the underlying measures were not sets but elements of more general Boolean algebras, and their range consisted not of positive numbers but of certain abstract equivalence classes. My proposed first sentence was: "The author discusses valueless measures in pointless spaces."

To isolate mathematics from the practical demands of the sciences is to invite the sterility of a cow shut away from the bulls.

The best material model of a cat is another, or preferably the same, cat.

The aim of mathematics is to explain as much as possible in simple terms.

I know that two and two make four - and should be glad to prove it too if I could - though I must say if by any sort of process I could convert 2 and 2 into five it would give me much greater pleasure.

One can't believe impossible things.

Music is mathematics, the mathematics of listening, mathematics for the ears.

We never know what we are talking about.

The mathematician, carried along on his flood of symbols, dealing apparently with purely formal truths, may still reach results of endless importance for our description of the physical universe.

The theory of numbers is particularly liable to the accusation that some of its problems are the wrong sort of questions to ask. I do not myself think the danger is serious; either a reasonable amount of concentration leads to new ideas or methods of obvious interest, or else one just leaves the problem alone. "Perfect numbers" certainly never did any good, but then they never did any particular harm.

The surprising thing about this paper is that a man who could write it would.

Mathematicians are a bit like the laconic Vermonter who, when asked if he's lived in the state his whole life, replies, "Not yet."

Geometry is one and eternal shining in the mind of God. That share in it accorded to men is one of the reasons that Man is the image of God.

Logic is the technique by which we add conviction to truth.

Mathematics is the music of reason.

I don't want to convince you that mathematics is useful. It is, but utility is not the only criterion for value to humanity. Above all, I want to convince you that mathematics is beautiful, surprising, enjoyable, and interesting. In fact, mathematics is the closest that we humans get to true magic. How else to describe the patterns in our heads that - by some mysterious agency - capture patterns of the universe around us? Mathematics connects ideas that otherwise seem totally unrelated, revealing deep similarities that subsequently show up in nature.

Mathematics is the science of patterns, and nature exploits just about every pattern that there is.

I'm real good with math, with numbers, like my dad was. I'm pretty much dialed in.

[Adams] supposed that, except musicians, everyone thought Beethoven a bore, as every one except mathematicians thought mathematics a bore.