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Eric Temple Bell on Mathematics

1883–1960 Scotland

← All quotes by Eric Temple Bell

5 quotes

Nearly always it is the recondite and complicated which is elaborated first; and it is only when some relatively unsophisticated mind attacks a problem that its deep simplicity is revealed.

The Development of Mathematics (1940)

There are no absolutes... in mathematics or in its history.

The Development of Mathematics (1940)

The mistakes and unresolved difficulties of the past in mathematics have always been the opportunities of its future; and should analysis ever appear to be without or blemish, its perfection might only be that of death.

The Development of Mathematics (1940)

In the entire history of Greek mathematics, all but the incomparable Archimedes and a few of the more heterodox sophists appear to have hated or feared the mathematical infinite. Analysis was thwarted when it might have prospered.

The Development of Mathematics (1940)

Something more than impeccable logic is required in mathematics. An expert logician will not necessarily be a passable mathematician for all his skill in logic, any more than a scholarly prosodist will be a respectable poet for all his mastery of meter.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Eric Temple Bell (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.