#thematic

Mathematics as an expression of the human mind reflects the active will, the contemplative reason, and the desire for aesthetic perfection. Its basic elements are logic and intuition, analysis and construction, generality and individuality. ↗

— Richard Courant

#aesthetic #analysis #basic #basic elements #construction

Proof is an idol before whom the pure mathematician tortures himself. ↗

— Arthur Eddington

#himself #idol #mathematician #proof #pure

Physicists are more like avant-garde composers, willing to bend traditional rules... Mathematicians are more like classical composers. ↗

— Brian Greene

#bend #classical #classical composers #composers #like

Mathematics are the result of mysterious powers which no one understands, and which the unconscious recognition of beauty must play an important part. Out of an infinity of designs a mathematician chooses one pattern for beauty's sake and pulls it down to earth. ↗

— Marston Morse

#chooses #designs #down #down to earth #earth

My intention here is to make it clear that not a single cell of my composition, here in regard to The Raven, is found by chance or intuition, that the composition moved towards perfection with the precision and inevitability of a mathematical equation. ↗

— Maurice Ravel

#chance #clear #composition #equation #found

RAND scientists tried to tell their wives that the decision whether to buy or not to buy a washing machine was an 'optimization problem'. ↗

— Sylvia Nasar

#beauty

Science is not about making predictions or performing experiments. Science is about explaining. ↗

— Bill Gaede

#fact #gaede #hypothesizing #mathematical-physics #prediction

A mathematician is an individual who calls himself a 'physicist' and does 'physics' and physical experiments with abstract concepts. ↗

— Bill Gaede

#peer-review #physics #science #scientific-language #experience

You can tell whether some misogynistic societal pressure is being exerted on women by calmly enquiring, ‘And are the men doing this, as well?’ If they aren’t, chances are you’re dealing with what we strident feminists refer to as ‘some total fucking bullshit’. ↗

— Caitlin Moran

#feminism #i-love-the-word-fuck #love

De mathematen worden samen met de natuur- en scheikundigen, de medicijnmannen van de twintigste eeuw genoemd, waarbij velen zich dan nog zeer argwanend afvragen of deze profeten van de nieuwe tijd het geluk van de mensheid voor ogen hebben. Het is stellig ten dele vanwege het gebruik van deze symbolen dat men de wiskunde gaat beschouwen als een geheimtaal van ingewijden, die zich aldus een eigen wereld scheppen waarin het moeiljk verkeren is, indien men niet van jongs af aan zijn weg daarin heeft gevonden. ↗

— Theodorus Martinus Eduard Liket

#men