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The principle that the sum of the squares of the differences between the observed and computed quantities must be a minimum may, in the following manner, be considered independently of the calculus of probabilities.

— Carl Friedrich Gauss Theoria motus corporum coelestium in sectionibus conicis solem ambientum (1809)

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More quotes by Carl Friedrich Gauss

I have had my results for a long time: but I do not yet know how I am to arrive at them.

The Mind and the Eye (1954)

All the measurements in the world do not balance one theorem by which the science of eternal truths is actually advanced.

The study of Euler's works will remain the best school for the different fields of mathematics and nothing else can replace it.

It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment.

But in our opinion truths of this kind should be drawn from notions rather than from notations.

About the proof of Wilson's theorem. Disquisitiones Arithmeticae (1801)

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