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It really is worth the trouble to invent a new symbol if we can thus remove not a few logical difficulties and ensure the rigour of the proofs. But many mathematicians seem to have so little feeling for logical purity and accuracy that they will use a word to mean three or four different things, sooner than make the frightful decision to invent a new word.

— Gottlob Frege Gottlob Frege in: Dagobert David Runes (1962)

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More quotes by Gottlob Frege

A judgment, for me is not the mere grasping of a thought, but the admission of its truth.

Gottlob Frege (1892)

Every good mathematician is at least half a philosopher, and every good philosopher is at least half a mathematician.

to Frege in: A. A. B. Aspeitia (2000)

Without some affinity in human ideas art would certainly be impossible; but it can never be exactly determined how far the intentions of the poet are realized.

Gottlob Frege (1892)

A philosopher who has no connection to geometry is only half a philosopher, and a mathematician who has no philosophical vein is only half a mathematician.

Since it is only in the context of a proposition that words have any meaning, our problem becomes this: To define the sense of a proposition in which a number-word occurs.

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