Bolyai, Janos (1802-1860)
Out of nothing I
have created a
strange new
universe.
[A reference to the
creation of a
non-Euclidean
geometry.]
Bolyai, Wolfgang (1775-1856)
[To son Janos:]
For God's sake,
please give it up.
Fear it no less than
the sensual passion,
because it, too, may
take up all your
time and deprive you
of your health,
peace of mind and
happiness in
life.
[Bolyai's
father urging him to
give up work on
non-Euclidean
geometry.]
In P. Davis and R.
Hersh, The
Mathematical
Experience, Boston:
Houghton Mifflin
Co., 1981, p. 220.
Bohr, Niels Henrik David (1885-1962)
An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes, which can be made, in a very narrow field.
Blake
God forbid that Truth should be confined to Mathematical Demonstration!
Notes on Reynold's Discourses, c. 1808.
Besicovitch, A.S.
A mathematician's reputation rests on the number of bad proofs he has given.
In J. E. Littlewood A Mathematician's Miscellany, Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1953.
Bernoulli, Johann
But just as much as it is easy to find the differential of a given quantity, so it is difficult to find the integral of a given differential. Moreover, sometimes we cannot say with certainty whether the integral of a given quantity can be found or not.
Bernoulli, Jakob (1654-1705)
I recognize the lion
by his paw.
[After reading an
anonymous solution
to a problem that he
realized was
Newton's solution.]
In G. Simmons,
Calculus Gems, New
York: McGraw Hill,
1992, p. 136.
Bernoulli, Daniel
[I]t would be better
for the true physics
if there were no
mathematicians on
earth.
In The
Mathematical
Intelligencer,
v. 13, no. 1, Winter
1991.
Bentham, Jeremy (1748-1832)
O Logic: born gatekeeper to the Temple of Science, victim of capricious destiny: doomed hitherto to be the drudge of pedants: come to the aid of thy master, Legislation.
In J. Browning (ed.) Works.
Belloc, Hillaire (1870-1953)
Statistics are the triumph of the quantitative method, and the quantitative method is the victory of sterility and death.