British Mathematician Quotes

Gravitation simply represents a continual effort of the universe to straighten itself out.

E. T. Whittaker

I had expressed my wish to have a thermometer of probability, with impossibility at one end, as 2 plus 2 makes 5, and necessity at the other as 2 plus 2 make 4.

Augustus De Morgan

No theory, however attractive, merits scientific consideration unless it sticks out its neck sufficiently to be disproved by experiment or observation.

Big whorls have little whorls Which feed on their velocity, And little whorls have lesser whorls, And so on to viscosity.

Lewis Fry Richardson

Time figures as the mortar which binds the bricks of matter together.

A physicist builds theories with mathematical materials, because the mathematics enables him to imagine more than he can clearly think.

No number of facts or aphorisms learned by heart makes a man a thinker, or does him much intellectual service.

Joshua Girling Fitch

The group of problems which I propose to describe belong to that Cinderella of pure mathematics - the study of differential equations.

George Frederick James Temple

Discovery is a double relation of analysis and synthesis together. As an analysis, it probes for what is there; but then, as a synthesis, it puts the parts together in a form by which the creative mind transcends the bare limits, the bare skeleton, that nature provides.

Jacob Bronowski

When you tell people that you are studying maths at uni, they are like, Oh …. Especially a blonde Essex girl.

A great department of thought must have its own inner life, however transcendent may be the importance of its relations to the outside. No department of science, least of all one requiring so high a degree of mental concentration as Mathematics, can be developed entirely, or even mainly, with a view to applications outside its own range.

We behold indeed, in the motions of the celestial bodies, some effects of [the attraction] that may be call'd more august or pompous. But methinks these little hyperbolas, form'd by a fluid between two glass planes, are not a-whit less fine and curious than the spacious ellipses describ'd by the planets, in the bright expanse of Heaven.

I think I perceive or remember something but am not sure; this would seem to give me some ground for believing it, contrary to Mr. Keynes' theory, by which the degree of belief in it which it would be rational for me to have is that given by the probability relation between the proposition in question and the things I know for certain.

Frank P. Ramsey

I think it is said that Gauss had ten different proofs for the law of quadratic reciprocity. Any good theorem should have several proofs, the more the better. For two reasons: usually, different proofs have different strengths and weaknesses, and they generalize in different directions - they are not just repetitions of each other.

The simplicity of nature which we at present grasp is really the result of infinite complexity; and that below the uniformity there underlies a diversity whose depths we have not yet probed, and whose secret places are still beyond our reach.

William Spottiswoode

That a formal science like algebra, the creation of our abstract thought, should thus, in a sense, dictate the laws of its own being, is very remarkable. It has required the experience of centuries for us to realize the full force of this appeal.

George Ballard Mathews

The task of cleaning up mathematics and salvaging whatever can be saved from the wreckage of the past twenty years will probably be enough to occupy one generation.

Eric Temple Bell

Experiment is a more efficient mean than Observation, for exploring the secrets of Nature. It requires no constant fatigue of watching, but comes in a great measure under the control of the inquirer, who may often at will either hasten or delay the expected event.

John Leslie (physicist)

That mathematics, in common with other art forms, can lead us beyond ordinary existence, and can show us something of the structure in which all creation hangs together, is no new idea. But mathematical texts generally begin the story somewhere in the middle, leaving the reader to pick up the thread as best he can.

G. Spencer-Brown

Mathematics is one of the oldest of the sciences; it is also one of the most active, for its strength is the vigor of perpetual youth.

The poetic beauty of Davy's mind never seems to have left him. To that circumstance I would ascribe the distinguishing feature in his character, and in his discoveries,—a vivid imagination sketching out new tracts in regions unexplored, for the judgement to select those leading to the recesses of abstract truth.

Of Humphry Davy

I must warn you that Gurdjieff is far more of an enigma than you can imagine. I am certain that he is deeply good, and that he is working for the good of mankind. But his methods are often incomprehensible. For example, he uses disgusting language, especially to ladies who are likely to be squeamish about such things. He has the reputation of behaving shamelessly over money matters, and with women also. At his table we have to drink spirits, often to the point of drunkenness. People have said that he is a magician, and that he uses his powers for his own ends... I do not believe that the scandalous tales told of Gurdjieff are true: but you must take into account that they may be true and act accordingly.

John G. Bennett

Very few people realize the enormous bulk of contemporary mathematics. Probably it would be easier to learn all the languanges of the world than to master all mathematics at present known.

Walter Warwick Sawyer

There are a number of theorems in ordinary algebra, which, though apparently proved to be true only for symbols representing numbers, admit of a much more extended application. Such theorems depend only on the laws of combination to which the symbols are subject, and are therefore true for all symbols, whatever their nature may be, which are subject to the same laws of combination. The laws with which we have here concern are few in number, and may be stated in the following manner. Let a, b represent two operations, u, v two subjects on which they operate, then the laws are

Duncan Farquharson Gregory

Opinions derived from long experience are exceedingly valuable, and outweigh all others, while they are consistent with facts and with each other; but they are worse than useless when they lead, as in this instance, to directly opposite opinions.