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Perhaps nowhere does one find a better example of the value of historical knowledge for mathematicians than in the case of Fermat, for it is safe to say that, had he not been intimately acquainted with the geometry of Apollonius and Viéte, he would not have invented analytic geometry.

— Carl Benjamin Boyer History of Analytic Geometry (1956)

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Mathematics

More quotes by Carl Benjamin Boyer

The Introductio does not boast an impressive number of editions, yet its influence was pervasive.

Ptolemy left in his Optics, the earliest surviving table of angles of refraction from air to water.

The Rainbow: From Myth to Mathematics (1959)

In myth and legend the rainbow has been regarded variously as a harbinger of misfortune and as a sign of good luck.

The Rainbow: From Myth to Mathematics (1959)

But what, after all, are the integers? Everyone thinks that he or she knows, for example, what the number three is — until he or she tries to define or explain it.

Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity (2013)

The conception of the rainbow as a pathway or bridge has been widespread.

The Rainbow: From Myth to Mathematics (1959)

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Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.

Kenneth Boulding to Kenneth Boulding in: United States. Congress. House (1973)

If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is: infinite.

William Blake The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790)

Pure mathematics consists entirely of assertions to the effect that, if such and such a proposition is true of anything, then such and such another proposition is true of that thing.

Bertrand Russell

The land of easy mathematics where he who works adds up and he who retires subtracts.

Núria Añó

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Carl Benjamin Boyer (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.