Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle Quote

There is in mathematics, so to speak, only what we have placed there, only the clearest ideas that the human mind can form of magnitude, compared with one another and combined in an infinity of different ways, while Nature could well have used in the construction of the universe some mechanics that escapes us entirely.


Quoted in Michael S. Mahoney, In David C. Lindberg and Robert S. Westman


There is in mathematics, so to speak, only what we have placed there, only the clearest ideas that the human mind can form of magnitude, compared...

There is in mathematics, so to speak, only what we have placed there, only the clearest ideas that the human mind can form of magnitude, compared...

There is in mathematics, so to speak, only what we have placed there, only the clearest ideas that the human mind can form of magnitude, compared...

There is in mathematics, so to speak, only what we have placed there, only the clearest ideas that the human mind can form of magnitude, compared...