Mathematician

Explore 56 quotes by Mathematicians

One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another.

René Descartes

Discourse on Method

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Topic

New ideas

Author

René Descartes

Source

Discourse on Method

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

French

Time

1637 1630s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Descartes, René [published anonymously]. Discours de la Méthode: Pour bien conduire sa raison, et chercher la vérité dans les sciences [Discourse on Method: To Conduct Reason Well, and Seek Truth in the Sciences]. Leiden, 1637, pt. 2.

Current Citation

Descartes, René. Discourse on the Method, translated by Ian Maclean. Oxford University Press, 2008, pt. 2.

Rationalism is an adventure in the clarification of thought.

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Topic

Rationalism Reason

Speaker

Alfred North Whitehead

Source

Process and Reality

Medium

Essay

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Whitehead, Alfred North. "Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology." Gifford Lecture. 1927–1928, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Current Citation

Whitehead, Alfred North. Process and Reality. Simon and Schuster, 2010, pt. 1, ch. 1, sec. 3.

It is contrary to reason to say that there is a vacuum or space in which there is absolutely nothing.

René Descartes

Principles of Philosophy

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Topic

Nothingness

Author

René Descartes

Source

Principles of Philosophy

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Latin

Time

1644 1640s 17th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Descartes, René. Principia Philosophica [Principles of Philosophy]. Amsterdam: Ludovicum Elzevirium, 1644, pt. 2, sect. 16.

Everything that is hard to attain is easily assailed by the generality of men.

Ptolemy

Tetrabiblos

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Topic

Envy

Author

Ptolemy

Source

Tetrabiblos

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

168 160s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Ptolemy, Claudius. Τετράβιβλος [Tetrabiblios]. c. 150, bk. 1.

Mathematics is the science which draws necessary conclusions.

Benjamin Peirce

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Topic

Mathematics Science

Author

Benjamin Peirce

Source

Linear Associative Algebra

Medium

Academic journal

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1870 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Peirce, Benjamin. Linear Associative Algebra. Van Nostrand, 1882, sect. 1.

Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.

Alfred North Whitehead

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Topic

Advance of civilization Civilization Progress

Author

Alfred North Whitehead

Source

Introduction to Mathematics

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1911 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Whitehead, Alfred North. An Introduction to Mathematics. Henry Holt and Company/Williams and Norgate, 1911, ch. 5.

The theory of probabilities is at bottom only common sense reduced to calculus.

Pierre-Simon Laplace

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Topic

Probability Statistics Mathematics

Author

Pierre-Simon Laplace

Source

Theorie Analytique des Probabilites

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

French

Time

1814 1810s 19th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Laplace, Pierre-Simon. Theorie Analytique des Probabilities [Analytic Theory of Probability]. Paris: Madame Va Courcier, 1812.

I put forward as a general definition of civilization, that a civilized society is exhibiting the five qualities of Truth, Beauty, Adventure, Art, Peace.

Alfred North Whitehead

Adventures of Ideas

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Topic

Civilization

Author

Alfred North Whitehead

Source

Adventures of Ideas

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1933 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Whitehead, Alfred North. Adventures of Ideas. The Macmillan Company/Simon and Schuster, 1933, ch. 19, sec. 1.

The opinion seems to have got abroad, that, in a few years, all the great physical constants will have been approximately estimated, and that the only occupation which will be left to men of science will be to carry on these measurements to another place of decimals.

James Clerk Maxwell

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Topic

Laws of physics

Speaker

James Clerk Maxwell

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1871 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Maxwell, James Clerk. Inaugural address as Cavendish professor. Oct. 1871, Cambridge University, Cambridge, England, UK.

Life exists in the universe only because the carbon atom possesses certain exceptional properties.

James Jeans

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Topic

Nature of life Biology Life

Author

James Jeans

Source

The Mysterious Universe

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1930 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Jeans, James. The Mysterious Universe. Cambridge University Press/Macmillan, 1930, ch. 1.

It is more important that a proposition be interesting than that it be true…But of course a true proposition is more apt to be interesting than a false one.

Alfred North Whitehead

Adventures of Ideas

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Topic

Ideas

Author

Alfred North Whitehead

Source

Adventures of Ideas

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1933 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Whitehead, Alfred North. Adventures of Ideas. The Macmillan Company/Simon and Schuster, 1933, ch. 16, sec. 3.

Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth.

Isaac Newton

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Topic

Truth Philosophers

Author

Isaac Newton

Language

Latin

Time

1664 1660s 17th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Newton, Isaac. Questiones Quaedam Philosophcae. c. 1664.

When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind: it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science.

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin

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Topic

Epistemology Knowledge Numbers Mathematics

Speaker

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1883 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Thomson, William. "Electrical Units of Measurement." 3 May 1883, Institute of Civil Engineers, London, England, UK. Lecture.

The science of Pure Mathematics, in its modern developments, may claim to be the most original creation of the human spirit.

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Topic

Mathematics

Speaker

Alfred North Whitehead

Source

Mathematics as an Element in the History of Thought

Medium

Speech

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1925 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Whitehead, Alfred North. "Mathematics as an Element in the History of Thought." Lecture before the Mathematical Society. 1925, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.

Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.

Henri Poincaré

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Topic

Science

Author

Henri Poincaré

Source

Science and the Hypothesis

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

French

Time

1901 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Poincare, Henri. La science et l'hypothese [Science and Hypothesis]. Flammarion, 1902, ch. 9.

Current Citation

Poincare, Henri. Science and Hypothesis: The Complete Text, translated by Melanie Frappier, Andrea Smith and David J. Stump, edited by Melanie Frappier and David J. Stump. Bloomsbury Academic, 2022, ch. 9.

Man alone consumes and engulfs more flesh than all other animals put together. He is, then, the greatest destroyer, and he is so more by abuse than by necessity.

George Louis Leclerc

More information about this quote

Topic

Human destructiveness Man and animals

Author

George Louis Leclerc

Source

Histoire Naturelle

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

French

Time

1753 1750s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Leclerc, Georges-Louis. Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi [Natural History, General and Particular, with a Description of the King's Cabinet]. Paris: Imprimerie royale, c. 1753.