Eduard Jan Dijksterhuis (1892–1965) Dutch historian
Source: The mechanization of the world picture, 1961, p. 499
Arthur Cecil Pigou ed. (1925). Memorials of Alfred Marshall, New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1966. p. 84
Eduard Jan Dijksterhuis (1892–1965) Dutch historian
Source: The mechanization of the world picture, 1961, p. 499
Paul Dirac (1902–1984) theoretical physicist
The Evolution of the Physicist's Picture of Nature (1963)
Context: It seems to be one of the fundamental features of nature that fundamental physical laws are described in terms of a mathematical theory of great beauty and power, needing quite a high standard of mathematics for one to understand it. You may wonder: Why is nature constructed along these lines? One can only answer that our present knowledge seems to show that nature is so constructed. We simply have to accept it. One could perhaps describe the situation by saying that God is a mathematician of a very high order, and He used very advanced mathematics in constructing the universe. Our feeble attempts at mathematics enable us to understand a bit of the universe, and as we proceed to develop higher and higher mathematics we can hope to understand the universe better.
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
1900s, "The Study of Mathematics" (November 1907)
Stanislaw Ulam (1909–1984) Polish-American mathematician
Source: Adventures of a Mathematician - Third Edition (1991), Chapter 6, Transition And Crisis, p. 120
Henry John Stephen Smith (1826–1883) mathematician
As quoted in The Century: A Popular Quarterly (1874) ed. Richard Watson Gilder, Vol. 7, pp. 508-509, https://books.google.com/books?id=ceYGAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA508 "Relations of Mathematics to Physics". Earlier quote without citation in Nature, Volume 8 (1873), page 450. <br class="br">Also quoted partially in Michael Grossman and Robert Katz, Calculus http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/mb?a=listis;c=216746186|Non-Newtonian (1972) p. iv. ISBN 0912938013.
“Machines might give us more time to think but will never do our thinking for us.”
Thomas Watson, Jr. (1914–1993) American businessman and diplomat
Thomas Watson, Jr. (1957) cited in: Tom Watson, Jr. quoted - IBM http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/watsonjr/watsonjr_quoted.html at ibm.com, 2013.
“If nature leads us to mathematical forms of great simplicity and beauty”
Werner Heisenberg (1901–1976) German theoretical physicist
Conversation with Einstein, as quoted in Bittersweet Destiny: The Stormy Evolution of Human Behavior by Del Thiessen
Context: If nature leads us to mathematical forms of great simplicity and beauty—by forms I am referring to coherent systems of hypothesis, axioms, etc.—to forms that no one has previously encountered, we cannot help thinking that they are "true," that they reveal a genuine feature of nature... You must have felt this too: The almost frightening simplicity and wholeness of relationships which nature suddenly spreads out before us and for which none of us was in the least prepared.
Martin Gardner (1914–2010) recreational mathematician and philosopher
The Dover Math and Science Newsletter http://www.doverpublications.com/mathsci/0516/d/ May 16, 2011
George Frederick James Temple (1901–1992) British mathematician
100 Years of Mathematics: a Personal Viewpoint (1981)
Marcus du Sautoy (1965) British professor of mathematics
Conclusion in BBC's The Story of Maths, episode 4