Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)
Music is the
pleasure the human
soul experiences
from counting
without being aware
that it is counting.
In N. Rose,
Mathematical Maxims
and Minims, Raleigh
NC: Rome Press Inc.,
1988.
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)
Nothing is more
important than to
see the sources of
invention which are,
in my opinion, more
interesting than the
inventions
themselves.
J. Koenderink, Solid
Shape, Cambridge
Mass.: MIT Press,
1990.
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)
[About him:]
It
is rare to find
learned men who are
clean, do not stink
and have a sense of
humour.
[Attributed
variously to Charles
Louis de Secondat
Montesquieu and to
the Duchess of
Orleans]
Lehrer, Thomas Andrew (1928- )
In one word he told
me the secret of
success in
mathematics:
plagiarize, only be
sure always to call
it please research.
Lobachevski (a
humorous and
satirical song)
Lebesgue, Henri (1875 - 1941)
In my opinion, a
mathematician, in so
far as he is a
mathematician, need
not preoccupy
himself with
philosophy -- an
opinion, moreover,
which has been
expressed by many
philosophers.
Scientific American,
September 1964, p.
129.
Leacock, Stephen
How can you shorten
the subject? That
stern struggle with
the multiplication
table, for many
people not yet ended
in victory, how can
you make it less?
Square root, as
obdurate as a
hardwood stump in a
pasture; nothing but
years of effort can
extract it. You
can't hurry the
process. Or pass
from arithmetic to
algebra; you can't
shoulder your way
past quadratic
equations or ripple
through the binomial
theorem. Instead,
the other way; your
feet are impeded in
the tangled growth,
your pace slackens,
you sink and fall
somewhere near the
binomial theorem
with the calculus in
sight on the
horizon. So died,
for each of us,
still bravely
fighting, our
mathematical
training; except for
a set of people
called
"mathematicians" --
born so, like
crooks.
In H. Eves, Return
to Mathematical
Circles, Boston:
Prindle, Weber and
Schmidt, 1988.
Leach, Edmund Ronald (1910 - 1989)
How can a modern
anthropologist
embark upon a
generalization with
any hope of arriving
at a satisfactory
conclusion? By
thinking of the
organizational ideas
that are present in
any society as a
mathematical
pattern.
Rethinking
Anthropology, 1961.
Lao Tze (604-531 B.C.)
A good calculator
does not need
artificial aids.
Langer, Rudoph E.
[About Fourier:] It
was, no doubt,
partially because of
his very disregard
for rigor that he
was able to take
conceptual steps
which were
inherently
impossible to men of
more critical
genius.
In P. Davis and R.
Hersh, The
Mathematical
Experience, Boston:
Birkhauser, 1981.
Landau, Susan
There's a touch of
the priesthood in
the academic world,
a sense that a
scholar should not
be distracted by the
mundane tasks of
day-to-day living. I
used to have great
stretches of time to
work. Now I have
research thoughts
while making peanut
butter and jelly
sandwiches. Sure
it's impossible to
write down ideas
while reading
"Curious George" to
a two-year-old. On
the other hand, as
my husband was
leaving graduate
school for his first
job, his thesis
advisor told him,
"You may wonder how
a professor gets any
research done when
one has to teach,
advise students,
serve on committees,
referee papers,
write letters of
recommendation,
interview
prospective faculty.
Well, I take long
showers."
In Her Own Words:
Six Mathematicians
Comment on Their
Lives and Careers.
Notices of the AMS,
v. 38, no. 7
(September 1991), p.
704.