Mark Kac Quotes & Sayings

There are those who believe that mathematics can sustain itself and grow without any further contact with anything outside itself, and those who believe that nature is still and always will be one of the main (if not the main) sources of mathematical inspiration. The first group is identified as "pure mathematicians" (though "purist" would be more adequate) while the second is, with equal inadequacy, referred to as "applied". — Mark Kac

In recent years we have become much more preoccupied with streamlining and organizing our subject than with maintaining its overall vitality. If we are not careful, a great adventure of the mind will become yet another profession. — Mark Kac

It may be appropriate to quote a statement of Poincare, who said (partly in jest no doubt) that there must be something mysterious about the normal law since mathematicians think it is a law of nature whereas physicists are convinced that it is a mathematical theorem. — Mark Kac

Mathematics is not a separate entity. It owes a great deal of its power and its beauty to other disciplines. — Mark Kac

There are surely worse things than being wrong, and being dull and pedantic are surely among them. — Mark Kac

A proof is that which convinces a reasonable man; a rigorous proof is that which convinces an unreasonable man. — Mark Kac