"The Key! it is of wonderful construction, with its infinity of combination, and its unlimited capacity to fit every lock. … it is the great master-key which unlocks every door of knowledge and without which no discovery which deserves the name — which is law, and not isolated fact — has been or ever can be made. Fascinated by its symmetry the geometer may at times have been too exclusively engrossed with his science, forgetful of its applications; he may have exalted it into his idol and worshipped it; he may have degraded it into his toy . . . when he should have been hard at work with it, using it for the benefit of mankind and the glory of his Creator."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from the United StatesMathematicians from the United StatesHarvard University alumniHarvard University facultyScientists from Massachusetts
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Peirce
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Benjamin Peirce
Benjamin Peirce (4 April 1809 – 6 October 1880) was an American mathematician who taught at Harvard University for forty years. He made contributions to celestial mechanics, number theory, algebra, and the philosophy of mathematics. He was the father of Charles Sanders Peirce.
32 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Benjamin Peirce →
Related Quotes
"Mathematics is the science which draws necessary conclusions."
"Benjamin Peirce deserves recognition, not only as a founding father of American mathematics, but also as a founding f…"
"What is man? … What a strange union of matter and mind! A machine for converting material into spiritual force."
"Ideality is preëminently the foundation of Mathematics."
"It is not given to us — it is given to but few men of any generation — to roam those Alpine solitudes of science to w…"
"Geometry, to which I have devoted my life, is honoured with the title of the Key of Sciences; but it is the Key of an…"
"Ascend with me above the dust, above the cloud, to the realms of the higher geometry, where the heavens are never clo…"
"Descend from the infinite to the infinitesimal. Long before . . . observation had begun to penetrate the veil under w…"
"Throughout nature the omnipresent beautiful revealed an all-pervading language spoken to the human mind, and to man's…"
"Gentlemen, that is surely true, it is absolutely paradoxical; we cannot understand it, and we don't know what it mean…"