Favorite Mathematics and Science Quotations

“The divergent series are the invention of the devil, and it is a shame to base on them any demonstration whatsoever.” — Niels Henrik Abel

“All science is either physics or stamp collecting.” — Ernest Rutherford

“The currency of approximation is derivatives.” — Author unknown (I learned of this quotation from Ohannes Karakashian.)

“The Axiom of Choice is obviously true, the well-ordering principle obviously false, and who can tell about Zorn’s lemma?” — Jerry Bona

“There is nothing more practical than a good theory.” — Ludwig Boltzmann

“Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried.” — Winston Churchill

“No self-respecting architect leaves the scaffolding in place after completing his building.” — Carl Friedrich Gauss

“If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.” — John von Neumann

“‘Obvious’ is the most dangerous word in mathematics.” — Eric Temple Bell

“Nothing takes place in the world whose meaning is not that of some maximum or minimum.” — Leonhard Euler

“A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems.” — Alfréd Rényi

“Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.” — George Orwell

“One of the principal objects of theoretical research is to find the point of view from which the subject appears in the greatest simplicity.” — Josiah Willard Gibbs

“If your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics, I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.” — Sir Arthur Eddington