Some favorite quotations

• "...geometry is the art of careful reasoning from badly drawn figures."
  Henri Poincaré
   
• "The soul of every mathematician is wrestled for by the Devil of Abstract Algebra and the Angel of Topology."
  Hermann Weyl
   
• "It is a great nuisance that knowledge can only be acquired by hard work."
  W. Somerset Maugham
   
• "Skill comes from the constant repetition of familiar feats rather than by a few overbold attempts at feats for which the performer is yet poorly prepared."
  Wilbur Wright
  
  
• "Problems worthy of attack
  prove their worth by hitting back."
  Piet Hein, Grooks
   
• "I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more I have of it."
  Thomas Edison
   
• "Mathematicians think that notation simplifies the discussion. But to others it is a barrier."
  (source unknown)
  
  
• "A problem clearly stated is a problem half solved."
  (from a fortune cookie)
  
  
• "Mathematics is the use of abstraction and symbolism to represent and understand profound truths. It is not a collection of rules; it is an art as deeply creative as painting a portrait or composing a sonata."
  me, circa 2002
   

last updated February 25, 2010
Bill Fenton