Quotes & Sayings About Math Proofs

God has the Big Book, the beautiful proofs of mathematical theorems are listed here. — Paul Erdos

For we may remark generally of our mathematical researches, that these auxiliary quantities, these long and difficult calculations into which we are often drawn, are almost always proofs that we have not in the beginning considered the objects themselves so thoroughly and directly as their nature requires, since all is abridged and simplified, as soon as we place ourselves in a right point of view. — Louis Poinsot

Mathematical proofs, like diamonds, are hard and clear, and will be touched with nothing but strict reasoning. — John Locke

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty. — John Adams

Im not an Athlete, Im a ballplayer — John Kruk

It's specifically this Z = 2^(Aleph0) that he couldn't prove. Ever. Despite years of unimaginable doodling. Whether it's what unhinged him or not is an unanswerable question, but it is true that his inability to prove the C.H. caused Cantor pain for the rest of his life; he considered it his great failure. This too, in hindsight, is sad, because professional mathematicians now know exactly why G. Cantor could neither prove nor disprove the C.H. The reasons are deep and important and go corrosively to the root of axiomatic set theory's formal Consistency, in rather the same way that K. Godel's Incompleteness proofs deracinate all math as a formal system. Once again, the issues here can be only sketched or synopsized (although this time Godel is directly involved, so the whole thing is probably fleshed out in the Great Discoveries Series' Godel booklet). — David Foster Wallace

Here are the basic principles of Constructivism as practiced by Kronecker and codified by J.H. Poincare and L.E.J. Brouwer and other major figures in Intuitionism: (1) Any mathematical statement or theorem that is more complicated or abstract than plain old integer-style arithmetic must be explicitly derived (i.e. 'constructed') from integer arithmetic via a finite number of purely deductive steps. (2) The only valid proofs in math are constructive ones, with the adjective here meaning that the proof provides a method for finding (i.e., 'constructing') whatever mathematical entities it's concerned with. — David Foster Wallace

The alternative to peace is war, which will expose everyone to mass casualties, misery and a loss of perspective for many years to come. — Boris Trajkovski

In the wilderness, be not afraid. Trust God to deliver you. — Lailah Gifty Akita

A mathematician's reputation rests on the number of bad proofs he has given. — Abram Samoilovitch Besicovitch

A math lecture without a proof is like a movie without a love scene. This talk has two proofs. — Hendrik Lenstra

Only professional mathematicians learn anything from proofs. Other people learn from explanations. — Ralph P. Boas Jr.

The Prussian Academy of Sciences is a fast-track academic institute that requires a proactive, hands-on-type individual to overthrow the Newtonian conception of the universe. The successful candidate will have an excellent command of mass, energy, space, time and some maths. Bonus paid upon completion of proofs — Albert Einstein

Just because it's common sense, doesn't mean it's common practice. — Will Rogers

When I lost a tennis match that made me upset or hurt emotionally I would find myself going to the piano and playing for hours. It was my place of refuge and solace. — Aaron Zigman

Spilsby in Lincolnshire is proud of its most famous son, Sir John Franklin, and home to an enormous bronze statue of him. It was unveiled in 1875 and according to the legend on its plaque, it was Sir John who discovered the Northwest Passage. This is overstating things a little, given that the discovery was made twenty-five years later and by Roald Amundsen. — Shaun Micallef

You might be shown the photos of the space chimps in their helmets, grinning from ear to ear, and you might feel an urge to tell the rest of your class that chimps grin like that only when they're frightened, that no amount of time among humans will change it. Those happy-looking space chimps in those pictures are frankly terrified and maybe you just barely stop yourself from saying so. — Karen Joy Fowler

One hope no sooner dies in us but another rises up in its stead. We are apt to fancy that we shall be happy and satisfied if we possess ourselves of such and such particular enjoyments; but either by reason of their emptiness, or the natural inquietude of the mind, we have no sooner gained one point, but we extend our hopes to another. We still find new inviting scenes and landscapes lying behind those which at a distance terminated our view. — Joseph Addison