Math Quotes from Platonic Realms


		Albert Einstein Profession: physicist. Born 1879, Ulm, Germany. Died 1955, Princeton, New Jersey. But there is another reason for the high repute of mathematics: it is mathematics that offers the exact natural sciences a certain measure of security which, without mathematics, they could not attain. Do not worry too much about your difficulties in mathematics, I can assure you that mine are still greater. How can it be that mathematics, being after all a product of human thought independent of experience, is so admirably adapted to the objects of reality? Imagination is more important than knowledge. Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas. The creative principle resides in mathematics. In a certain sense, therefore, I hold it true that pure thought can grasp reality, as the ancients dreamed. Ralph Waldo Emerson Profession: poet, essayist. Born 1803. Died 1882. If a man is at once acquainted with the geometric foundation of things and with their festal splendor, his poetry is exact and his arithmetic musical. Paul Erdös Profession: mathematician. Born 1913, Budapest, Hungary. Died 1996, Warsaw, Poland. A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems. Escher Maurits Cornelis Profession: artist. Born 1898, Leeuwarden, Netherlands. Died 1972, Laren, Netherlands. The laws of mathematics are not merely human inventions or creations. They simply ‘are;’ they exist quite independently of the human intellect. The most that any(one) ... can do is to find that they are there and to take cognizance of them. Leonhard Euler Profession: mathematician. Born 1707, Basel, Switzerland. Died 1783, St. Petersburg, Russia. Although to penetrate into the intimate mysteries of nature and thence to learn the true causes of phenomena is not allowed to us, nevertheless it can happen that a certain fictive hypothesis may suffice for explaining many phenomena. Euripides Profession: playwrite. Born 484 bce. Died 406 bce. Mighty is geometry; joined with art, resistless. Richard P. Feynman Profession: Physicist. Born 1918, Brooklyn, New York. Died 1988, Los Angeles, California. We could, of course, use any notation we want; do not laugh at notations; invent them, they are powerful. In fact, mathematics is, to a large extent, invention of better notations. (Source: The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Addison-Wesley, Chapter 17) Gustave Flaubert Profession: author. Born 1821. Died 1880. Since you are now studying geometry and trigonometry, I will give you a problem. A ship sails the ocean. It left Boston with a cargo of wool. It grosses 200 tons. It is bound for Le Havre. The main mast is broken, the cabin boy is on deck, there are 12 passengers aboard, the wind is blowing east-north-east, the clock points to a quarter past three in the afternoon. It is the month of May. How old is the captain? Bernard de Fontenelle Born 1657, Rouen, France. Died 1757, Paris, France. An educated mind is, as it were, composed of all the minds of preceding ages. Mathematicians are like lovers ... Grant a mathematician the least principle, and he will draw from it a consequence which you must grant him also, and from this consequence another.		BROWSE BY AUTHOR BROWSE BY TOPIC SEARCH FOR QUOTES CONTAINING A PHRASE (5 to 50 characters): CLICK HERE FOR SEARCH TIPS

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