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Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of boneheads: ridiculous kings and queens, paranoid political leaders, compulsive voyagers, ignorant generals — the flotsam and jetsam of historical currents. The men who radically altered history, the great scientists and mathematicians, are seldom mentioned, if at all.

— Martin Gardner

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More quotes by Martin Gardner

Mathemagical mathematics combines the beauty of mathematical structure with the entertainment value of a trick.

There is still a difference between something and nothing, but it is purely geometrical and there is nothing behind the geometry.

The Mathematical Magic Show (1978)

In many cases a dull proof can be supplemented by a geometric analogue so simple and beautiful that the truth of a theorem is almost seen at a glance.

Although Lewis Carroll thought of The Hunting of the Snark as a nonsense ballad for children, it is hard to imagine—in fact one shudders to imagine—a child of today reading and enjoying it.

The Annotated Snark (1962)

As I have often said, electrons and gerbils don't cheat. People do.

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Attribution

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