“Only in books has mankind known perfect truth, love and beauty.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright
“A mathematician is only perfect insofar as he is a perfect man, sensitive to the beauty of truth.”
Maxim 609, trans. Stopp
Maxims and Reflections (1833)
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Do you have more details about the quote "A mathematician is only perfect insofar as he is a perfect man, sensitive to the beauty of truth." by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe?
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe185
German writer, artist, and politician 1749–1832Related quotes
Karl Weierstrass (1815–1897) German mathematician
... es ist wahr, ein Mathematiker, der nicht etwas Poet ist, wird nimmer ein vollkommener Mathematiker sein.
Letter to Sofia Kovalevskaya, August 27, 1883, as shared by Gösta Mittag-Leffler at the 2nd International Congress for Mathematicians in Paris. Compte rendu du deuxième Congrès international des mathematiciens tenu à Paris du 6 au 12 août 1900, Gauthier-Villars (Paris), 1902, page 149.
“Math is perfect (in principle), but mathematicians are not (because they are humans)”
Doron Zeilberger (1950) Israeli mathematician
Computerized Deconstruction. Appeared in Adv. Appl. Math. v. 31 (2003), 532-543.
Context: Math is perfect (in principle), but mathematicians are not (because they are humans), hence the mathematics that (human) mathematicians do is influenced by the weltanschauung of the people around them.
Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet
Ibid., p. 150
The Book of Disquiet
Original: O homem perfeito do pagão era a perfeição do homem que há; o homem perfeito do cristão a perfeição do homem que não há; o homem perfeito do budista a perfeição de não haver homem.
“I believe Beauty is the condition of the perfect life, just as important as Virtue and Truth.”
Stuart Merrill (1863–1915) American poet, who wrote mostly in the French language
"Credo"
“Perfect health, like perfect beauty, is a rare thing; and so, it seems, is perfect disease.”
Peter Mere Latham (1789–1875) English physician and educator
Infertility Counseling: A Comprehensive Handbook for Clinicians - Page 179 by Linda Hammer Burns, Sharon N. Covington - Medical - 2000.
Collected Works
Frithjof Schuon book The Transfiguration of Man
[2005, The Transfiguration of Man, World Wisdom, 72, 978-0-94153219-8]
Spiritual life, Truth
“That soul that can
Be honest is the only perfect man.”
John Fletcher The Honest Man's Fortune
Epilogue. Compare: "An honest man's the noblest work of God", Alexander Pope, Essay on Man, epistle iv. line 248.
The Honest Man's Fortune, (1613; published 1647)
Prem Rawat (1957) controversial spiritual leader
From an Interview with John Wood of the Boston Globe with Guru Maharaj Ji in Newton, Massachusetts, August 3, 1973, published in And It Is Divine ~ Dec. 1973, Volume 2. Issue 2.
1970s