Thoughts on Mathematics and The
Future.
We have to reinvent the wheel every
once in a while, not because we need a lot of wheels; but because we need a lot
of inventors.
Bruce
Joyce
People who don't count won't count.
Anatole
France
In a time when much of the world's geography has been explored, and space
exploration is restricted to astronauts, mathematics offers fertile ground for
exploring the unknown.
Walter
Meyer
As I considered the matter carefully, it gradually came to light that all those
matters only are referred to mathematics in which order and measurements are
investigated, and that it makes no difference whether it be in numbers,
figures, stars, sounds, or any other object that the question of measurement
arises. I saw, consequently, that there must be some general science toexplain
that element as a whole which gives rise to problems about order and
measurement. This I perceived was called universal mathematics. Such a science
should contain the primary rudiments of human reason, and its province out to
extend to the eliciting of true results in every subject.
Rene
Descartes
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.
Godfrey
Harold Hardy
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.
Werner
Heisenberg
There is no branch of mathematics, however abstract, which may not someday be
applied to the phenomena of the real world.
Nicolai
Lobachevsky
To most outsiders, modern mathematics is unknown territory. Its borders are
protected by dense thickets of technical terms; its landscapes are a mass of
indecipherable equations and incomprehensible concepts. Few realize that the
world of modern mathematics is rich with vivid images and provocative ideas.
Ivars
Peterson
