Mark Kac famous quotes

A proof is that which convinces a reasonable man; a rigorous proof is that which convinces an unreasonable man.
-- Mark Kac

#Men #Proof #Unreasonable

There are surely worse things than being wrong, and being dull and pedantic are surely among them.
-- Mark Kac

#Dull #Pedantic #Being Wrong

Mathematics is not a separate entity. It owes a great deal of its power and its beauty to other disciplines.
-- Mark Kac

#Discipline #Mathematics #Entity

To exist (in mathematics), said Henri Poincaré, is to be free from contradiction. But mere existence does not guarantee survival. To survive in mathematics requires a kind of vitality that cannot be described in purely logical terms.
-- Mark Kac

#Survival #Vitality #Doe

... there are those who believe that mathematics can sustain itself and grow without any further contact with anything outside itself, and those who believe that nature is still and always will be one of the main (if not the main) sources of mathematical inspiration. The first group is identified as "pure mathematicians" (though "purist" would be more adequate) while the second is, with equal inadequacy, referred to as "applied".
-- Mark Kac

#Believe #Inspiration #Groups

In recent years we have become much more preoccupied with streamlining and organizing our subject than with maintaining its overall vitality. If we are not careful, a great adventure of the mind will become yet another profession.
-- Mark Kac

#Adventure #Years #Mind

God never can use any man very much till he has grace enough to forget himself entirely while doing God's work; for He will not give His glory to another nor share with the most valued instrument the praise that belongs to Jesus Christ alone.

This is our high calling, to represent Christ, and act in His behalf, and in His character and spirit, under all circumstances and toward all men.

The sanctified body is one whose hands are clean. The stain of dishonesty is not on them, the withering blight of ill-gotten gain has not blistered them, the mark of violence is not found upon them. They have been separated from every occupation that could displease God or injure a fellow-man.

No one man is superior to the game.

Ambition often puts Men upon doing the meanest offices; so climbing is performed in the same position with creeping.

Ale, man, ale's the stuff to drink for fellows whom it hurts to think.

I searched everywhere for a proof of reality, when all the while I understood quite well that the standard of reality had changed

Fermat said he had a proof.

Martyrdom has always been a proof of the intensity, never of the correctness of a belief.

Every artist is unreasonable, because he or she is doing something that hasn't been done before.