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The magnificent achievement of Bourbaki planned to present in an orderly sequence the whole of mathematics is already dated, and a new edition appears to need a complete revision based perhaps on category theory rather then on sets and logic.

— George Frederick James Temple

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Mathematics

More quotes by George Frederick James Temple

The dull and pedestrian researches of Todhunter on the histories of probability, the calculus of variations and the theory of elasticity will always preserve their value for the historiographer.

The historical approach introduces us personally to the great mathematicians and infuses a humane and genial spirit into what can be the most arid and abstract study.

Only by a study of the development of mathematics can its contemporary significance be understood.

The 'language theory' is inadequate as a description of the nature of mathematics.

Mathematical activity has taken the forms of a science, a philosophy and an art.

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

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

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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.

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

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