Eric Temple Bell Quotes

66 Sourced Quotes

There is a sharp disagreement among competent men as to what can be proved and what cannot be proved, as well as an irreconcilable divergence of opinions as to what is sense and what is nonsense.

Eric Temple Bell

That wretched monosyllable "all" has caused mathematicians more trouble than all the rest of the dictionary.

Eric Temple Bell

Nevertheless, the consuming hunger of the uncritical mind for what it imagines to be certainty or finality impels it to feast upon shadows in the prevailing famine of substance.

Eric Temple Bell

Just as "beauty is its own excuse for being," so mathematics needs no apology for existing.

Eric Temple Bell

If a lunatic scribbles a jumble of mathematical symbols it does not follow that the writing means anything merely because to the inexpert eye it is indistinguishable from higher mathematics.

Eric Temple Bell

No satisfactory justification has ever been given for connecting in any way the consequences of mathematical reasoning with the physical world.

Eric Temple Bell

Eric Temple Bell

Eric Temple Bell

Creative Commons

Born: February 7, 1883

Died: December 21, 1960 (aged 77)

Bio: Eric Temple Bell was a Scottish-born mathematician and science fiction writer who lived in the United States for most of his life. He published non-fiction using his given name and fiction as John Taine.

Known for:

Men of Mathematics (1937)
The magic of numbers (1946)
The last problem
Mathematics, queen and servant of science (1951)
The development of mathematics (1940)

Most used words:

Eric Temple Bell on Wikipedia

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