Source: Mathematics and the Physical World (1959), p. 51.
“Number was born in superstition and reared in mystery,… numbers were once made the foundation of religion and philosophy, and the tricks of figures have had a marvellous effect on a credulous people.”
Source: Talks on Pedagogics, (1894), p. 64. Reported in Moritz (1914, 269)
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Francis Wayland Parker 5
Union Army officer 1837–1902Related quotes

“Illiteracy, both in words and numbers, is the foundation of financial struggle.”
Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!

“We are but numbers, born to consume resources.”
Nos numerus sumus et fruges consumere nati.
Book I, epistle ii, line 27
Epistles (c. 20 BC and 14 BC)

“Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers.”
Interview in Playboy (November 1999)
Context: Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other people's business. I live by the golden rule: Treat others as you'd want them to treat you. The religious right wants to tell people how to live.

Thunder on the Right
Don Camillo and the Prodigal Sun (1952)
Source: Mathematics and the Physical World (1959), pp. 49-50.

As quoted in Claude Debussy: His Life and Works (1933) by Léon Vallas, p. 225
Variant translation: Before the passing sky, in long hours of contemplation of its magnificent and ever-changing beauty, I am seized by an incomparable emotion. The whole expanse of nature is reflected in my own sincere and feeble soul. Around me the branches of trees reach out toward the firmament, here are sweet-scented flowers smiling in the meadow, here the soft earth is carpeted with sweet herbs. … Nature invites its ephemeral and trembling travelers to experience these wonderful and disturbing spectacles — that is what I call prayer.
As quoted in The Life of the Creative Spirit (2001) by H. Charles Romesburg, p. 240
Context: I do not practise religion in accordance with the sacred rites. I have made mysterious Nature my religion. I do not believe that a man is any nearer to God for being clad in priestly garments, nor that one place in a town is better adapted to meditation than another. When I gaze at a sunset sky and spend hours contemplating its marvelous ever-changing beauty, an extraordinary emotion overwhelms me. Nature in all its vastness is truthfully reflected in my sincere though feeble soul. Around me are the trees stretching up their branches to the skies, the perfumed flowers gladdening the meadow, the gentle grass-carpetted earth, … and my hands unconsciously assume an attitude of adoration. … To feel the supreme and moving beauty of the spectacle to which Nature invites her ephemeral guests! … that is what I call prayer.