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Between the philosopher's attitude towards the issue of reality and that of the mathematician there is this essential difference: for the philosopher the issue is paramount; the mathematician's love for reality is purely platonic.

— Tobias Dantzig Number: The Language of Science (1930)

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Mathematics

More quotes by Tobias Dantzig

In the history of mathematics, the "how" always preceded the "why," the technique of the subject preceded its philosophy.

Number: The Language of Science (1930)

To describe means to classify, and the man Poincaré defies classification, as does indeed his philosophy.

Henri Poincaré, Critic of Crisis: Reflections on His Universe of Discourse (1954)

The evolution of scientific thought is inseparable from the history of man's efforts to resolve the perplexities of his own existence.

Henri Poincaré, Critic of Crisis: Reflections on His Universe of Discourse (1954)

Mathematics fluourished as long as freedom of thought prevailed; it decayed when creative joy gave way to blind faith and fanatical frenzy.

The Bequest of the Greeks (1955)

Poincaré was an artist par excellence. Estheticism with him was not a mere creed: it was a way of life.

Henri Poincaré, Critic of Crisis: Reflections on His Universe of Discourse (1954)

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