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Mathematics is the science of the infinite, its goal the symbolic comprehension of the infinite with human, that is finite, means.

— Hermann Weyl The Open World: Three Lectures on the Metaphysical Implications of Science (1932)

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Mathematics

More quotes by Hermann Weyl

In these days the angel of topology and the devil of abstract algebra fight for the soul of each individual mathematical domain.

Hermann. Invariants. Duke Math. J. 5 (1939)

Symmetry is a vast subject, significant in art and nature. Mathematics lies at its root, and it would be hard to find a better one on which to demonstrate the working of the mathematical intellect.

Symmetry (1952)

Time is the primitive form of the stream of consciousness.

Space—Time—Matter (1952)

It is in the composite idea of motion that these three fundamental conceptions enter into intimate relationship.

Space—Time—Matter (1952)

Consciousness spreads out its web, in the form of time, over reality.

Space—Time—Matter (1952)

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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: Hermann Weyl (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.