Gauss, Carl Friedrich (1777-1855)
[His motto:] Few but ripe. (Pauca sed matura.)
Gauss, Karl Friedrich (1777-1855)
I mean the word proof not in the sense of the lawyers, who set two half proofs equal to a whole one, but in the sense of a mathematician, where half proof = 0, and it is demanded for proof that every doubt becomes impossible.
In G. Simmons Calculus Gems, New York: McGraw Hill inc., 1992.
Gauss, Karl Friedrich (1777-1855)
We must admit with humility that, while number is purely a product of our minds, space has a reality outside our minds, so that we cannot completely prescribe its properties a priori.
Gauss, Karl Friedrich (1777-1855)
Gauss, Karl Friedrich (1777-1855)
You know that I write slowly. This is chiefly because I am never satisfied until I have said as much as possible in a few words, and writing briefly takes far more time than writing at length.
In G. Simmons Calculus Gems, New York: McGraw Hill inc., 1992.
Gauss, Karl Friedrich (1777-1855)
There are problems to whose solution I would attach an infinitely greater importance than to those of mathematics, for example touching ethics, or our relation to God, or concerning our destiny and our future; but their solution lies wholly beyond us and completely outside the province of science.
In J. R. Newman (ed.) The World of Mathematics, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956. p. 314.
Gauss, Karl Friedrich (1777-1855)
If others would but reflect on mathematical truths as deeply and as continuously as I have, they would make my discoveries.
In J. R. Newman (ed.) The World of Mathematics, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956. p. 326.
Gauss, Karl Friedrich (1777-1855)
I confess that Fermat's Theorem as an isolated proposition has very little interest for me, because I could easily lay down a multitude of such propositions, which one could neither prove nor dispose of.
[A reply to Olbers' attempt in 1816 to entice him to work on Fermat's Theorem.] In J. R. Newman (ed.) The World of Mathematics, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956. p. 312.
Gardner, Martin
Mathematics is not
only real, but it is
the only reality.
[The] entire
universe is made of
matter, obviously.
And matter is made
of particles. It's
made of electrons
and neutrons and
protons. So the
entire universe is
made out of
particles. Now what
are the particles
made out of? They're
not made out of
anything. The only
thing you can say
about the reality of
an electron is to
cite its
mathematical
properties. So
there's a sense in
which matter has
completely dissolved
and what is left is
just a mathematical
structure.
Gardner on Gardner:
JPBM Communications
Award Presentation.
Focus: The
Newsletter of the
Mathematical
Association of
America, v. 14, no.
6, December 1994.
Gardner, Martin
Biographical
history, as taught
in our public
schools, is still
largely a history of
boneheads:
ridiculous kings and
queens, paranoid
political leaders,
compulsive voyagers,
ignorant generals --
the flotsam and
jetsam of historical
currents. The men
who radically
altered history, the
great scientists and
mathematicians, are
seldom mentioned, if
at all.
In G. Simmons,
Calculus Gems, New
York: McGraw Hill,
1992.