Mathematics

Explore 11 quotes about Mathematics

Philosophy is written in this grand book-I mean the universe-which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these, one is wandering about in a dark labyrinth.

Galileo Galilei

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Topic

Mathematics

Author

Galileo Galilei

Language

Italian

Time

1623 1620s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Galilei, Galileo. Il Saggiatore [The Assayer]. Rome, 1623.

Current Citation

Galilei, Galileo. "The Assayer." Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo. Doubleday & Company, 1957.

God made integers, all else is the work of man.

Leopold Kronecker

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Topic

Mathematics

Speaker

Leopold Kronecker

Medium

Lecture

Language

German

Time

1886 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Kronecker, Leopold. Berliner Naturforscher-Versammlung im Jahre. 1886, Berlin, Germany. Lecture.

If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning, concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames: For it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.

David Hume

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

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More information about this quote

Topic

Mathematics Reason Rationalism

Author

David Hume

Source

Of the Academical or Sceptical Philosophy (In Three Parts) An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1748 1740s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hume, David. "Of the Academical or Sceptical Philosophy (In Three Parts)." An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. London: A. Millar, 1748, sect. 12, pt. 3, para. 34.

Current Citation

Hume, David. "Of the Academical or Sceptical Philosophy." An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, edited by Tom L. Beauchamp. Oxford University Press, 2000, sect. 12, pt. 3, para. 34.

The mathematician's patterns, like the painter's or the poet's, must be beautiful; the ideas, like the colors or the words, must fit together in a harmonious way. Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics.

G.H. Hardy

A Mathematician's Apology

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Topic

Mathematics

Author

G.H. Hardy

Source

A Mathematician's Apology

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hardy, G. H. A Mathematician's Apology. Cambridge University Press, 1940.

The great advantage of the mathematical sciences above the moral consists in this, that the ideas of the former, being sensible, are always clear and determinate.

David Hume

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

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Topic

Mathematics Science

Author

David Hume

Source

Of the Idea of Necessary Connection (In Two Parts) An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1748 1740s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hume, David. "Of the Idea of Necessary Connection (In Two Parts)." An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. London: A. Millar, 1748, sect. 7, pt. 1, para. 1.

Current Citation

Hume, David. "Of the Idea of Necessary Connexion." An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, edited by Tom L. Beauchamp. Oxford University Press, 2000, sect. 7, pt. 1, para. 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.

Mathematics takes us still further from what is human, into the region of absolute necessity, to which only the actual world, but every possible world, must conform.

Bertrand Russell

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Topic

Mathematics Laws of physics

Author

Bertrand Russell

Source

The Study of Mathematics The New Quarterly

Medium

Essay Magazine

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1907 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Russell, Bertrand. "The Study of Mathematics." The New Quarterly, Nov. 1907.

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.

Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty—a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show.

Bertrand Russell

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Topic

Beauty of math Mathematics

Author

Bertrand Russell

Source

The Study of Mathematics The New Quarterly

Medium

Essay Magazine

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1907 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Russell, Bertrand. "The Study of Mathematics." The New Quarterly, Nov. 1907.

Current Citation

Russell, Bertrand. The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, edited by Robert E. Egner and Lester E. Denonn. Routledge, 2009, ch. 31.

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.