Mathematics

"Of all those who searched for the truth, only the mathematicians managed to find quite a number of proofs, therefore their topic must have been the easiest by far."

René Descartes (1596 – 1650)

"One should study mathematics simply because it helps to arrange one's ideas."

M. W. Lomonossow (1711 – 1765)

"Mathematics is sort of a plaything which was given to us by nature in order to comfort and entertain us."

Jean-Baptist le Rond d'Alembert (1717 – 1783)

"God is a child, and as he began to play, he did mathematics. Mathematics is the most divine pastime of human beings."

V. Erath

"Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: Whatever you say to them, they translate it into their own language, and forthwith it means something entirely different."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832)

"The first rule a mathematician has to follow is to be exact. The second rule is to be clear and precise and as far as possible simple."

Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot (1753 – 1823)

"Everything which is merely possible, is possibly wrong."

René Descartes (1596 – 1650)

"One shall not mistake the things which seem to be unlikely and unnatural for something which is absolutely impossible."

Carl Friedrich Gauß (1777 – 1855)

"There are things which seem to be unbelievable to those who have not studied mathematics."

Archimedes (ca. 285 – 212 v. Chr.)

"We mathematicians have a very simple criterion for determining the truth: Either there is a proof or not."

K. Urbanik

"A mathematical certainty itself is neither simple nor complicated, it is."

Émile Lemoine (1840 – 1912)

"Archimedes will be remembered even when Aischylos will be forgotten - because languages die but mathematical ideas do not."

Godfrey Harold Hardy (1877 – 1947)

"Insofar as mathematical theorems apply on reality, they are not yet proven, and insofar they are proven, they do not apply to realtiy."

Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)

"If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y plus Z. X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut."

Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)

"Die Furcht vor der Mathematik steht der Angst erheblich näher als der Ehrfurcht."

Felix Auerbach (1856 – 1933)

"Most people have those feelings for mathematics which also should be created by a tragedy (according to Aristoteles): sympathy and fear. Sympathy with those who have to bother with mathematics – and fear of getting into this dangerous position oneself."

Paul Epstein (1883  – 1966)

"A good mathematical joke is worth more than a whole dozen of mediocre papers."

John Edensor Littlewood (1885 – 1977)

"If the insight in the method of mathematics was more widespread, people would not necessarily make more clever statements than today, but they would surely make fewer foolish ones."

Karl Menger (1902 – 1985)

"God exists, because mathematics is free of contradictions, and the devil exists, because we cannot prove this."

André Weil (1906 – 1998)

"The Axiom of Choice is obviously true, the well-ordering principle obviously false, and who can tell about Zorn's Lemma?"

Jerry L. Bona (1945 – )

"Among all human discoveries, the discovery of the mistake is the most important one."

St. J. Lec

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