Tobias Dantzig famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

Mathematics is the supreme judge; from its decisions there is no appeal.
-- Tobias Dantzig

#Math #Judging #Decision
The harmony of the universe knows only one musical form - the legato; while the symphony of number knows only its opposite - the staccato. All attempts to reconcile this discrepancy are based on the hope that an accelerated staccato may appear to our senses as a legato.
-- Tobias Dantzig

#Opposites #Symphony #Numbers
They [the mathematicians of the Enlightenment] defined their terms vaguely and used their methods loosely, and the logic of their arguments was made to fit the dictates of their intuition. In short, they broke all the laws of rigor and of mathematical decorum. The veritable orgy which followed the introduction of the infinitesimals... was but a natural reaction. Intuition had too long been held imprisoned by the severe rigor of the Greeks. Now it broke loose, and there were no Euclids to keep its romantic flight in check.
-- Tobias Dantzig

#Law #Long #History
And so matching by itself is incapable of creating an art of reckoning. Without our ability to arrange things in ordered succession little progress could have been made. Correspondence and succession, the two principles that permeate all mathematics - nay, all realms of exact thought - are woven into the very fabric of our number system.
-- Tobias Dantzig

#Art #Two #Creating
The practical man demands an appearance of reality at least. Always dealing in the concrete, he regards mathematical terms not as symbols or thought but as images of reality. A system acceptable to the mathematician because of its inner consistency may appear to the practical man to be full of contradictions because of the incomplete manner in which it represents reality.
-- Tobias Dantzig

#Reality #Men #Consistency
The importance of infinite processes for the practical exigencies of technical life can hardly be overemphasized. Practically all applications of arithmetic to geometry, mechanics, physics and even statistics involve these processes directly and indirectly.
-- Tobias Dantzig

#Statistics #Physics #Infinite
Are not most professional mathematicians spared all trouble incident to income?
-- Tobias Dantzig

#Income #Trouble #Incidents

I didn't mind studying. Obviously math and the physical science subjects interested me more than some of the more artistic subjects, but I think I was a pretty good student.
Some of the greatest advances in mathematics have been due to the invention of symbols, which it afterwards became necessary to explain; from the minus sign proceeded the whole theory of negative quantities.
"The most powerful single idea in mathematics is the notion of a variable."
Order is heaven's first law.
A master of improvised speech and improvised policies.
We, while noting many things amiss about Victorian society, more often sense them judging us.
Because it is a national landmark, there is only one way to judge the Kennedy Center - against the established standard of progressive and innovative excellence in architectural design that this country is known and admired for internationally. Unfortunately, the Kennedy Center not only does not achieve this standard of innovative excellence; it also did not seek it. The architect opted for something ambiguously called 'timelessness' and produced meaninglessness. It is to the Washington manner born. Too bad, since there is so much of it.
At a certain point you have to make a decision in your life about where will you best serve, and I decided that I would best serve as a producer as opposed to a studio executive. There are many upsides to being the studio executive, but one of the downsides is that you get removed from the actual process of making the movie.
Money coming in says I've made the right marketing decisions
You have to make sure that your assets and your back is protected before you make any big decisions.

Tobias Dantzig famous quotes

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