Gregory Chaitin (1947) Argentinian mathematician and computer scientist
Thoughts on the Riemann hypothesis http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02985392 The Mathematical Intelligencer (December 2004) vol. 26, issue 1, pp. 4–7, quote on p. 4
Source: Psyche and Matter (1992), p. 269
Gregory Chaitin (1947) Argentinian mathematician and computer scientist
Thoughts on the Riemann hypothesis http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02985392 The Mathematical Intelligencer (December 2004) vol. 26, issue 1, pp. 4–7, quote on p. 4
Christian Heinrich von Dillmann (1829–1899) German educationist
Source: Die Mathematik die Fackelträgerin einer neuen Zeit (Stuttgart, 1889), p. 12.
George Gamow (1904–1968) Russian-American physicist and science writer
"Interview with George Gamow" http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/4325.html, by Charles Weiner at Professor Gamow's home in Boulder, Colorado (25 April 1968)
William John Macquorn Rankine (1820–1872) civil engineer
p, 125
"On the Harmony of Theory and Practice in Mechanics" (Jan. 3, 1856)
“Only mathematics and mathematical logic can say as little as the physicist means to say.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
The Scientific Outlook (1931)
1930s
Context: Ordinary language is totally unsuited for expressing what physics really asserts, since the words of everyday life are not sufficiently abstract. Only mathematics and mathematical logic can say as little as the physicist means to say.
“It is we who are the measure of what is strange and miraculous”
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) German scientist, satirist
A 26
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook A (1765-1770)
Context: It is we who are the measure of what is strange and miraculous: if we sought a universal measure the strange and miraculous would not occur and all things would be equal.
“Those who really solve mathematical puzzles are the physicists.”
Carlo Beenakker (1960) Dutch physicist
In Interview with Professor Carlo Beenakker. Interviewers: Ramy El-Dardiry and Roderick Knuiman (February 1, 2006).
Context: … mathematicians are much more concerned for example with the structure behind something or with the whole edifice. Mathematicians are not really puzzlers. Those who really solve mathematical puzzles are the physicists. If you like to solve mathematical puzzles, you should not study mathematics but physics!
Valentine Telegdi (1922–2006) American physicist
[Physics Today, A Lowbrow's View of Feynman, 42, 2, 1989, 10.1063/1.881197] (p. 85)