"Paul Erdős, although an atheist, spoke of an imaginary book, in which God has written down all the most beautiful mathematical proofs. When Erdős wanted to express particular appreciation of a proof, he would exclaim "This one's from the Book!". This viewpoint expresses... that mathematics, as the... foundation on which the laws of our universe are built, is a natural candidate for what has been personified as God..."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
John Francis, Philosophy of Mathematics (2008), p. 51.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mathematical_proof
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Mathematical proof
43 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Mathematical proof →
Related Quotes
"The physicists didn't want to be bothered with the idea that maybe quantum theory is only provisional. A horn of plen…"
"Now Gödel's proof, Russell's original paradox, all these things, all stem from one common root which is inherent in a…"
"In the summer of 1914 I attended Frege's course, Logik in der Mathematik. Here he examined critically some of the cus…"
"On the subject of demonstrations, it is to be remarked that the Hindu mathematicians proved propositions both algebra…"
"Pythagoras did not possess a proof of the theorem which bears his name... he was temperamentally uninterested in proo…"
"Proof is the idol before whom the pure mathematician tortures himself."
"Another roof, another proof."
"It really is worth the trouble to invent a new symbol if we can thus remove not a few logical difficulties and ensure…"
"The ideal of strictly scientific method in mathematics which I have tried to realise here, and which perhaps might be…"
"The great masters of modern analysis are Lagrange, Laplace, and Gauss, who were contemporaries. It is interesting to …"