Strogatz Quotes & Sayings

Thou fair-haired angel of the evening, Now, whilst the sun rests on the mountains, light Thy bright torch of love; thy radiant crown Put on, and smile upon our evening bed. Smile on our loves. ... — Edward Abbey

In the early part of the ninth century, Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, a mathematician working in Baghdad, wrote a seminal textbook in which he highlighted the usefulness of restoring a quantity being subtracted (like 2, above) by adding it to the other side of an equation. He called this process al-jabr (Arabic for "restoring"), which later morphed into "algebra." Then, long after his death, he hit the etymological jackpot again. His own name, al-Khwarizmi, lives on today in the word "algorithm. — Steven H. Strogatz

One of the pleasures of looking at the world through mathematical eyes is that you can see certain patterns that would otherwise be hidden. — Steven Strogatz

Why are you so afraid of the word 'Fascism,' Doremus? Just a word - just a word! And might not be so bad, with all the lazy bums we got panhandling relief nowadays, and living on my income tax and yours - not so worse to have a real Strong Man, like Hitler or Mussolini - like Napoleon or Bismarck in the good old days - and have 'em really run the country and make it efficient and prosperous again. 'Nother words, have a doctor who won't take any back-chat, but really boss the patient and make him get well whether he likes it or not! — Sinclair Lewis

They had parted as boys, and now life presented one of them with a fugitive and the other with a dying man. Both wondered whether this was due to the cards they'd been dealt or to the way they had played them. — Carlos Ruiz Zafon

You mean his kisses." Hannah corrected her.

Jonas narrowed his gaze. "You seem obsessed with his kisses, Hannah."

She shrugged. "It's been a while. I'm looking for a little action."

His eyebrow shot up. "Oh, really?" Jonas leaned down, his hand twisting in her hair, holding her head perfectly still as his mouth took possession of hers.

Libby gasped in shock. The kiss seemed to go on and on forever. And there was definitely tongue. Hannah not only wasn't struggling, she seemed to be kissing him back.

Jonas pulled away just as abruptly, shoving his hat on his head and turning toward the living room. "That should hold you for a while. Next time you're feeling a little hard up, give me a call." He strode out of the room. — Christine Feehan

Yet in another way, calculus is fundamentally naive, almost childish in its optimism. Experience teaches us that change can be sudden, discontinuous, and wrenching. Calculus draws its power by refusing to see that. It insists on a world without accidents, where one thing leads logically to another. Give me the initial conditions and the law of motion, and with calculus I can predict the future -- or better yet, reconstruct the past. I wish I could do that now.
— Steven H. Strogatz

Holder: "You live over on Conroe, that's over two miles away."
Sky: "You know what street I live on?"
Holder: "Yeah. Linden Sky Davis, born September 29th. 1455 Conroe Street. Five feet three inches. Donor."
Sky: [take a step backward and confused]
Holder: "Your ID. You showed me your ID earlier. At the store."
Sky: "You look at it for two seconds."
Holder: "I have a good memory."
Sky: "You stalk."
Holder: "I stalk? You're the one standing in front of my house. — Colleen Hoover

...nothing cements a friendship like hating the same person. — Steven Strogatz

When you love a problem, its contours, obstacles and resistances are all just part of its character. — Steven Strogatz

let's begin with the word "vector." It comes from the Latin root vehere, "to carry," which also gives us words like "vehicle" and "conveyor belt." To an epidemiologist, a vector is the carrier of a pathogen, like the mosquito that conveys malaria to your bloodstream. To a mathematician, a vector (at least in its simplest form) is a step that carries you from one place to another. — Steven H. Strogatz

It's a curious thing about human psychology that if you don't have the right mental framework, you sometimes can't see what's right in front of your face. — Steven H. Strogatz

His touch does strange things to me. It makes me feel things. Things I'm not supposed to feel. Things I can't allow myself to feel. It's like his fingers are strumming my heartstrings, pulling, plucking, twisting, and I'm helpless. Completely and utterly helpless. — Beth Michele

You can get a certain amount of pleasure as a mathematical spectator, reading and watching some of the most beautiful arguments that have been created in the history of humanity. But that's too passive. — Steven Strogatz

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock. — Will Rogers

If you ask why we should obey God, in the last resort the answer is, 'I am.' To know God is to know that our obedience is due to Him. — C.S. Lewis

The probability of an event is always represented by a single final arrow-no matter how many arrows were drawn, multiplied, and added to achieve it. — Richard Feynman

Yeah,there was a whole chapter on you in my eight grade History of Angels textbook," Miles said. Arriane clapped. "And they told me that book was banned! — Lauren Kate

Change is most sluggish at the extremes precisely because the derivative is zero there. — Steven Strogatz

When you create something new, you're breaking tradition - which is an act of defiance. — Steven Strogatz

The frequencies of the notes in a scale - do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do - sound to us like they're rising in equal steps. But objectively their vibrational frequencies are rising by equal multiples. We perceive pitch logarithmically. — Steven Strogatz

I loved this smart, funny, big-hearted novel. As hilarious and wise as early Philip Roth, The Mathematician's Shiva will delight and move you. — Steven Strogatz

While we cannot accurately predict the course of climate change in the coming decades, the risks we run if we don't change our course are enormous. Prudent risk management does not equate uncertainty with inaction. — Steven Chu

I've always just liked working. I like being a working actor. — Ryan Reynolds

My godfather was a man named Justin Dart. Some of you may remember Justin Dart. My younger son's name is Justin, named after Justin Dart. I was executor of his estate, and he was my godfather. I first really got time to spend with Ronald Reagan with Justin Dart personally, one-on-one. — Arthur Laffer

Even if all life on our planet is destroyed, there must be other life somewhere which we know nothing of. It is impossible that ours is the only world; there must be world after world
unseen by us, in some region or dimension that we simply do not perceive. Even though I can't prove that, even though it isn't logical - I believe it. — Philip K. Dick

Looking at numbers as groups of rocks may seem unusual, but actually it's as old as math itself. The word "calculate" reflects that legacy - it comes from the Latin word calculus, meaning a pebble used for counting. To enjoy working with numbers you don't have to be Einstein (German for "one stone"), but it might help to have rocks in your head. — Steven Strogatz

I think I've missed you all my life — L. H. Cosway