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Abstractness, sometimes hurled as a reproach at mathematics, is its chief glory and its surest title to practical usefulness. It is also the source of such beauty as may spring from mathematics.

— Eric Temple Bell The Development of Mathematics (1940)

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More quotes by Eric Temple Bell

The so-called obvious was repeatedly scrutinized from every angle and was frequently found to be not obvious but false. "Obvious" is the most dangerous word in mathematics.

Mathematics: Queen and Servant of Science (1938)

Nearly always it is the recondite and complicated which is elaborated first; and it is only when some relatively unsophisticated mind attacks a problem that its deep simplicity is revealed.

The Development of Mathematics (1940)

Out of fifty mathematical papers presented in brief at such a meeting, it is a rare mathematician indeed who really understands what more than half a dozen are about.

Mathematics: Queen and Servant of Science (1938)

Science makes no pretension to eternal truth or absolute truth; some of its rivals do. That science is in some respects inhuman may be the secret of its success in alleviating human misery and mitigating human stupidity.

Mathematics: Queen and Servant of Science (1938)

Wherever groups disclosed themselves, or could be introduced, simplicity crystallized out of comparative chaos.

Mathematics: Queen and Servant of Science (1938)

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