Math Quotes

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• Mar 31, 2010

• #181

Joseph Fourier

Profession: mathematician.
Born 1768, Auxerre, France.
Died 1830, Paris, France.

Heat, like gravity, penetrates every substance of the universe, its rays occupy all parts of space. The object of our work is to set forth the mathematical laws which this element obeys. The theory of heat will hereafter form one of the most important branches of general physics.
(Source: Analytical Theory of Heat)



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day

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• Mar 31, 2010

• #182

Joseph Fourier

The differential equations of the propagation of heat
express the most general conditions, and reduce
the physical questions to problems of pure analysis,
and this is the proper object of theory.
(Source: Analytical Theory of Heat)

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day

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• Mar 31, 2010

• #183

Joseph Fourier


The profound study of nature is the most fertile source of mathematical discoveries.
(Source: Morris Kline, Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times, New York, 1972)

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day

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• Mar 31, 2010

• #184

Joseph Fourier

Mathematical Analysis is as extensive as nature herself.

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Last edited: Mar 31, 2010

day

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• Mar 31, 2010

• #185

Evariste Galois

Profession: mathematician.
Born 1811, Paris, France.
Died 1832, Paris, France.

Unfortunately what is little recognized is that the most
worthwhile scientific books
are those in which the author clearly indicates
what he does not know;
for an author most hurts his readers
by concealing difficulties.

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day

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• Mar 31, 2010

• #186

Carl Friedrich Gauss

Profession: mathematician. Born 1749,
Died 1832.

Mathematics ... condescends to render service to astronomy and
other natural sciences, but under all circumstances the
first place is her due.

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day

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• Mar 31, 2010

• #187

Carl Friedrich Gauss


Mathematics is the queen of the sciences, and
number theory the queen of mathematics.

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• Mar 31, 2010

• #188

Kurt Gödel

Profession: mathematician.
Born 1906, Brunn,Austria-Hungary.
Died 1978, Princeton, New Jersey.

Either mathematics is too big for the human mind or
the human mind is more than a machine.

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day

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• Mar 31, 2010

• #189

Jacques Hadamard

Born 1865, Versailles, France. Died 1963, Paris, France.

The shortest path between two truths in the real domain
passes through the complex domain.

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day

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• Mar 31, 2010

• #190

Hermann Hankle

In most sciences one generation tears down what another has built
and what one has established another undoes. In mathematics alone
each generation adds a new story to the old structure.

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day

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• Mar 31, 2010

• #191

Ross Hansberger

Paul Erdos has a theory that God has a book containing all the theorems of mathematics with their absolutely most beautiful proofs, and when he wants to express particular appreciation of a proof he exclaims, “This is from the book!”

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day

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• Mar 31, 2010

• #192

Godfrey Harold Hardy

Profession: mathematician. Born 1877, Surrey, England. Died 1947, Cambridge, England.

A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas.

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Last edited: Mar 31, 2010

day

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• Mar 31, 2010

• #193

Godfrey Harold Hardy

"I am interested in mathematics only as a creative art."

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day

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• Mar 31, 2010

• #194

Godfrey Harold Hardy

"In these days of conflict between ancient and modern studies,
there must surely be something to be said for a study
which did not begin with Pythagoras and
will not end with Einstein,
but is the oldest and
youngest of all."

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day

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• Mar 31, 2010

• #195

Godfrey Harold Hardy

The mathematician’s patterns, like the painter’s or the poet’s must be beautiful; the ideas, like the colours 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.

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day

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• Mar 31, 2010

• #196

Werner Heisenberg

Profession: scientist. Born 1901, Wurzburg, Germany. Died 1976, Munich, Germany.

I think that modern physics has definitely decided in favor of Plato. In fact the smallest units of matter are not physical objects in the ordinary sense; they are forms, ideas which can be expressed unambiguously only in mathematical language.

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day

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• Mar 31, 2010

• #197

Israel Nathan Herstein

Born 1923, Lublin, Poland.
Died 1988, Chicago, Illinois.

Very often in mathematics the crucial problem is to recognize and
discover what are the relevant concepts; once this is accomplished
the job may be more than half done.

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• Mar 31, 2010

• #198

Leonardo da Vinci

"The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding."

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day

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• Mar 31, 2010

• #199

Leonardo da Vinci

"There are three classes of people:
those who see,
those who see when they are shown,
those who do not see."

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day

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• Apr 10, 2010

• #200

Oliver Wendell Holmes
Profession: justice. Born 1841. Died 1925.

Descartes commanded the future from his study
more than Napoleon from the throne.