"Mathematics as an expression of the human mind reflects the active will, the contemplative reason, and the desire for aesthetic perfection. Its basic elements are logic and intuition, analysis and construction, generality and individuality. Though different traditions may emphasize different aspects, it is only the interplay of these antithetic forces and the struggle for their synthesis that constitute the life, usefulness, and supreme value of mathematical science."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Richard Courant in: The Australian Mathematics Teacher, Volumes 39-40, Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers, 1983, p. 3
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Courant
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Richard Courant
Richard Courant (January 8, 1888 – January 27, 1972) was a German mathematician. He is best known by the general public for the 1941 book What is Mathematics?, co-written with Herbert Robbins.
5 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Richard Courant →
Related Quotes
"For scholars and laymen alike it is not philosophy but active experience in mathematics itself that can alone answer …"
"It becomes the urgent duty of mathematicians, therefore, to meditate about the essence of mathematics, its motivation…"
"Empirical evidence can never establish mathematical existence--nor can the mathematician's demand for existence be di…"
"Mathematical techniques to achieve numerical solutions for began to appear about the turn of the century. The first d…"
"The true mathematician is always a good deal of an artist, an architect, yes, of a poet. Beyond the real world, thoug…"
"I have come to the conclusion that the exertion, without which a knowledge of mathematics cannot be acquired, is not …"
"If in Germany the goddess Justitia had not the unfortunate habit of depositing the ministerial portfolios only in the…"
"A peculiar beauty reigns in the realm of mathematics, a beauty which resembles not so much the beauty of art as the b…"
"Mathematical knowledge, therefore, appears to us of value not only in so far as it serves as means to other ends, but…"
"Out of the interaction of form and content in mathematics grows an acquaintance with methods which enable the student…"