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Niels Henrik Abel Quotes

1802–1829 Norway

Niels Henrik Abel (5 August 1802 – 6 April 1829) was a Norwegian mathematician who made pioneering contributions in a variety of fields. His most famous single result is the first complete proof demonstrating the impossibility of solving the general quintic equation in radicals.

Norway
Mathematicians

Random Niels Henrik Abel quote

2 quotes

It is readily seen that any theory written by Laplace will be superior to all produced of lower standing. It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils.

Marginal note in his mathematical notebook (1826)

The mathematicians have been very much absorbed with finding the general solution of algebraic equations, and several of them have tried to prove the impossibility of it. However, if I am not mistaken, they have not as yet succeeded. I therefore dare hope that the mathematicians will receive this memoir with good will, for its purpose is to fill this gap in the theory of algebraic equations.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Niels Henrik Abel (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.