Quotes by and about Mathematicians: "A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn't there." - Charles Darwin "Do not worry too much about your difficulties in mathematics, I can assure you that mine are still greater." - Albert Einstein "It is easier to square a circle than to get round a mathematician." - de Morgan "The mathematician has reached the highest rung on the ladder of human thought." - Havelock Ellis "The life of a mathematician is dominated by an insatiable curiosity, a desire bordering on passion to solve the problems he is studying." - Jean Dieudonne "All mathematicians share...a sense of amazement over the infinite depth and the mysterious beauty and usefulness of mathematics." - Martin Gardner "Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why." - Bernard Baruch "I have no particular talent. I am only inquisitive." - Albert Einstein Charlie Chaplin once allegedly said to Albert Einstein: "The people applaud me because everyone understands me, and they applaud you because no one understands you." "The reason that every major university maintains a department of mathematics is that it is cheaper to do this than to institutionalize all those people." - Unknown "The laws of nature are but the mathematical thoughts of God." - Euclid
Quotes about Math and Logic and Knowledge: "Mathematics is a more powerful instrument of knowledge than any other that has been bequeathed to us by human agency." - Descartes "The essence of mathematics is not to make simple things complicated, but to make complicated things simple." - S. Gudder "Mathematics consists in proving the most obvious thing in the least obvious way." - George Polya "Mathematics is the science which uses easy words for hard ideas." - Edward Kasner and James R. Newman "The value of a problem is not so much coming up with the answer as in the ideas and attempted ideas it forces on the would be solver." - I.N. Herstein "Logic is invincible, because in order to combat logic it is necessary to use logic." - Pierre Boatroux "It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well." - Descartes "We only think when confronted with a problem." - John Dewey "The value of an education ... is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks." - Albert Einstein "Too many students give up on encountering difficulties in math, when just a few strategies could mean the difference between succeeding and failing." - Arthur E. Schwartz "The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics. That tenet is the foundation of the do-it-yourself, Socratic, or Texas method, ..." - Paul Halmos "Mathematics, in the common lay view, is a static discipline based on formulas ... But outside public view, mathematics continues to grow at a rapid rate ... the guide to this growth is not calculation and formulas, but an open-ended search for pattern." - Lynn A. Steen "Some mathematician, I believe, has said that true pleasure lies not in the discovery of truth, but in the search for it." - Tolstoy "Calculators can only calculate - they cannot do mathematics." - John A. Van de Walle "Any fool can know. The point is to understand." - Albert Einstein
Quotes about Math and Beauty: "The mathematician does not study pure mathematics because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it and he delights in it because it is beautiful." - Henri Poincare "The mathematical sciences particularly exhibit order, symmetry, and limitations; and these are the greatest forms of the beautiful." - Aristotle "Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty." - Bertrand Russell "Math is the only place where truth and beauty mean the same thing." - Danica McKellar
Quotes about Numbers and Arithmetic: "People who don't count won't count." - Anatole France "He who can properly define and divide is to be considered a god." - Plato "A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator, the smaller the fraction." - Tolstoy "Numbers constitute the only universal language." - Nathanael West "Arithmetic is being able to count up to twenty without taking off your shoes." - Mickey Mouse "Not everything that counts can be counted. Not everything that can be counted counts." - Albert Einstein "Five out of four people have trouble with fractions." - Steven Wright "Numerical precision is the very soul of science." - Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson "Think! Think and wonder. Wonder and think. How much water can 55 elephants drink?" - Dr. Seuss "We only use 10% of our brains ... Imagine how smart we would be if we used the other 60%!" - Ellen DeGeneres "Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical." - Yogi Berra "The purpose of computation is insight, not numbers." - Richard Hamming "Women have a passion for mathematics. They divide their age in half, double the price of their clothes, and always add at least five years to the age of their best friend." - Marcel Achard "If you think dogs can't count, try putting three dog biscuits in your pocket and then giving Fido only two of them." - Unknown "Although I am almost illiterate mathematically, I grasped very early in life that anyone who can count to ten can count upward indefinitely if he is fool enough to do so." - Robertson Davies
Quotes about Algebra: "The most powerful single idea in mathematics is the notion of a variable." - K. Dewdney "One person's constant is another person's variable." - Susan Gerhart "Algebra is the intellectual instrument which has been created for rendering clear the quantitative aspects of the world." - Alfred North Whitehead "I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of this, which however the margin is not large enough to contain." - Pierre de Fermat, referring to the result known as Fermat's Last Theorem "The symbolism of algebra is its glory. But also is its curse." - William Betz "One of the most important concepts in all of mathematics is that of function." - T.P. Dick and C.M. Patton
Quotes about Geometry: "Let no one ignorant of geometry enter here." - inscription above Plato's Academy "Circles to square and cubes to double would give a man excessive trouble." - Matthew Prior "Geometry is the foundation of all painting." - Albrecht Durer "The only angle from which to approach a problem is the TRY-Angle." - Unknown "Geometry is the science of correct reasoning on incorrect figures." - George Polya "Where there is matter, there is geometry." - Johannes Kepler "Geometry is just plane fun." - Unknown "Except in mathematics, the shortest distance between point A and point B is seldom a straight line." - Unknown
Quotes about Statistics and Probability: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." - Benjamin Disraeli "It is truth very certain that, when it is not in one's power to determine what is true, we ought to follow what is more probable." - Rene Descartes "42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot." - Steven Wright "Statistics means never having to say you're certain." - Unknown "The lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math." - Unknown "Statistics: the mathematical theory of ignorance." - Morris Kline "The most important questions in life are, for the most part, really only problems of probability." - Pierre Simon de La Place "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts ... for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang "It is a mathematical fact that fifty percent of all doctors graduate in the bottom half of their class." -Unknown "Probability is the very guide of life." - Cicero "Statistics are no substitute for judgment." - Henry Clay "Quantitative Research Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital." - Aaron Levenstein
Quotes about Calculus and Infinity: "The calculus is the greatest aid we have to the application of physical truth in the broadest sense of the word." - W.F. Osgood "Calculus is the most powerful weapon of thought yet devised by the wit of man." - W.B. Smith "The calculus is one of the greatest edifices constructed by mankind." - Cambridge Conference on School Mathematics "One good thing about teaching calculus is that you develop a hardened attitude towards repeating yourself." - Phil Hanlon "Progress has little to do with speed, but much to do with direction." - Unknown "The Mean Value Theorem is the midwife of calculus - not very important or glamorous by itself, but often helping to deliver other theorems that are of major significance." - E. Purcell and D. Varberg "Common integration is only the memory of differentiation..." - A. De Morgan "In the fall of 1972 President Nixon announced that the rate of increase of inflation was decreasing. This was the first time a sitting president used the third derivative to advance his case for reelection." - Hugo Rossi "Calculus has its limits." - Unknown "Calculus is one course you can come with to your parents and say, I am dropping it. And they'll understand." - Bill Cosby "Mathematics, in one view, is the science of infinity." - P. Davis and R. Hersh "The notion of infinity is our greatest friend; it is also the greatest enemy of our peace of mind." - James Pierpont "The infinite! No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man." - David Hilbert "[Paradoxes of the infinite arise] only when we attempt with our finite minds, to discuss the infinite, assigning to it those properties which we give to the finite and limited." - Galileo Galilei "The infinite in mathematics is always unruly unless it is properly treated." - Edward Kasner and James Newman "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein "If one puts an infinite number of monkeys in front of typewriters, and lets them clap away, there is a certainty that one of them will come out with an exact version of the 'Iliad.'" - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Miscellaneous Quotes about Math: "Perhaps the greatest paradox of all is that there are paradoxes in mathematics." - Kasner and Newman "All great theorems were discovered after midnight." - Adrian Mathesis "Life is good only for two things: discovering mathematics and teaching mathematics." - Simeon Poisson "Mathematics is not a spectator sport!" - Karl J. Smith "Mathematics should be fun." - Peter J. Hilton "The essence of mathematics is in its freedom." - Georg Cantor "How can it be that mathematics, a product of human thought independent of experience, is so admirably adapted to the objects of reality?" - Albert Einstein "Mathematical knowledge adds vigour to the mind, frees it from prejudice, credulity, and superstition." - John Arbuthnot "Learning to solve problems is the principal reason for studying mathematics." - National Council of Teachers of Mathematics "In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back." - Charlie Brown (Charles Schulz) "A math student's best friend is BOB (the Back Of the Book), but remember that BOB doesn't come to school on test days." - Josh Folb "One can invent mathematics without knowing much of its history. One can use mathematics without knowing much, if any, of its history. But one cannot have a mature appreciation of mathematics without a substantial knowledge of its history." - Abe Shenitzer "The greatest unsolved theorem in mathematics is why some people are better at it than others." - Adrian Mathesis "I advise my students to listen carefully the moment they decide to take no more mathematics courses. They might be able to hear the sound of closing doors." - James Caballero "Mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things." - J.H. Poincare "Golden rule of deriving: never trust any result that was proved after 11 PM." - Unknown "According to my experience, students must know the mathematics before they can apply it ... they cannot apply mathematics they do not know. It is like trying to teach people to play water polo before they know how to swim." - Frank B. Allen "There is no branch of mathematics, however abstract, which may not someday be applied to the phenomena of the real world." - Nicolai Lobachevsky
Quotes about Teaching: "It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." - physicist Albert Einstein "Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world." - Malala Yousafzai "The thing I loved the most -- and still love the most about teaching -- is that you can connect with an individual or a group, and see that individual or group exceed their limits." - Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyewski "Teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, caliber, and future of an individual. If the people remember me as a good teacher, that will be the biggest honor for me. - Former President of India A.P.J. Abdul Kalam "A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." - historian Henry Adams "The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called 'truth'." - journalist Dan Rather "We discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being." - educational philosopher Maria Montessori "I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit." - author John Steinbeck "Teachers can change lives with just the right mix of chalk and challenges." - author Joyce Meyer "I think the teaching profession contributes more to the future of our society than any other single profession." - former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden "Teaching is a profession in which capability building should occur at every stage of the career -- novices working with accomplished colleagues, skillful teachers sharing their craft, and opportunities for teacher leadership." - attorney Randi Weingarten
Quotes about Research: "No research without action, no action without research." - Kurt Lewin "The research we do at the local level - collaboratively - is what makes formal, outside research work. Outside research cannot be installed like a car part - it has to be fitted, adjusted, and refined for the school contexts we worked in." - Mike Schmoker "The more important reason is that the research itself provides an important long-run perspective on the issues that we face on a day-to-day basis." - Ben Bernanke "Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing." - Wernher von Braun "Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose." - Zora Neale Hurston "Mankind likes to think in terms of extreme opposites. It is given to formulating its beliefs in terms of Either-Ors, between which it recognizes no intermediate possibilities." - John Dewey "Shift attention in research to, or at least expand it to include, research that questions basic premises." - Nel Noddings "I have almost always found that children are a great deal more reliable in telling us what actually goes on in public school than many of the experts who develop policies that shape their destinies." - Jonathan Kozol "Imagination is the highest form of research." - Albert Einstein