Farkas Bolyai citations

Farkas Bolyai: 2 citations 0 J'aime

Farkas Bolyai: Citations en anglais

“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.”

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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.

“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.”

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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.