Farkas Bolyai Quotes

Farkas Bolyai: 2 quotes 0 likes

“No monument should stand over my grave, only an apple-tree, in memory of the three apples; the two of Eve and Paris, which made hell out of earth, and that of I. Newton, which elevated the earth again into the circle of heavenly bodies.”

Farkas Bolyai

As quoted by Florian Cajori, A History of Mathematics (1893) p. 303, citing Franz Schmidt, "Aus dem Leben zweier ungarischer Mathematiker Johann und Wolfgang Bolyai von Bolya," Grunert's Archiv, 48:2, 1868.

Hell , Tree , Memory

“Do not try the parallels in that way: I know that way all along. I have measured that bottomless night, and all the light and all the joy of my life went out there.”

Farkas Bolyai

Letter to János Bolyai (4 April 1820)
Published in: Samu Benkő (ed.), Bólyai-levelek, Kriterion, 1975, p. 123
As quoted in: O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Farkas Bolyai" http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Biographies/Bolyai_Farkas.html, MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews.
Having himself spent a lifetime unsuccessfully trying to prove Euclid's fifth postulate, Farkas discouraged his son János from any further attempt.

Life , Way , Light , Joy