Timothy Gowers famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

Here is something Category-Theorists like: it is trivial, but not trivially trivial.
-- Timothy Gowers

#Science #Mathematics #Categories
... the atlas is a manifold. This is a typical mathematician's use of the word "is", and should not be confused with the normal use.
-- Timothy Gowers

#Confused #Science #Atlas
This attitude [the abstract method in mathematics] can be encapsulated in the following slogan: a mathematical object is what it does.
-- Timothy Gowers

#Attitude #Learning #Doe
A typical mathematician does not actively try to be useful. Individual mathematicians are motivated primarily by a subtle mixture of ambition and intellectual curiosity, and not by a wish to benefit society, nevertheless, mathematics as a whole does benefit society.
-- Timothy Gowers

#Ambition #Math #Curiosity
Although the prime numbers are rigidly determined, they somehow feel like experimental data.
-- Timothy Gowers

#Data #Numbers #Determined
What a mathematical proof actually does is show that certain conclusions, such as the irrationality of , follow from certain premises, such as the principle of mathematical induction. The validity of these premises is an entirely independent matter which can safely be left to philosophers.
-- Timothy Gowers

#Independent #Doe #Matter
It is obvious that mathematics needs both sorts of mathematicians, theory-builders and problem-solvers.
-- Timothy Gowers

#Needs #Problem #Mathematics
Moreover, if one selects a problem, works on it in isolation for a few years and finally solves it, there is a danger, unless the problem is very famous, that it will no longer be regarded as all that significant.
-- Timothy Gowers

#Years #Problem #Isolation
At the other end of the spectrum is, for example, graph theory, where the basic object, a graph, can be immediately comprehended. One will not get anywhere in graph theory by sitting in an armchair and trying to understand graphs better. Neither is it particularly necessary to read much of the literature before tackling a problem: it is of course helpful to be aware of some of the most important techniques, but the interesting problems tend to be open precisely because the established techniques cannot easily be applied.
-- Timothy Gowers

#Interesting #Important #Trying

Science is the outcome of being prepared to live without certainty and therefore a mark of maturity. It embraces doubt and loose ends.
I value science--none can prize it more, It gives ten thousand motives to adore: Be it religious, as it ought to be, The heart it humbles, and it bows the knee.
But it would be absolutely mistaken to regard a wealth of theoretical knowledge as characteristic proof for the qualities and abilities of a leader.
Where lies the line between sorcery and science? It is only a matter of terminology, my friend.
I had drawings that were the first time that mathematics was put into visual form.
Mathematical reasoning may be regarded...
We know that nature is described by the best of all possible mathematics because God created it.
Mathematics as a science, commenced when first someone, probably a Greek, proved propositions about "any" things or about "some" things, without specifications of definite particular things.
Capital, like capitalism, seems an overrated category.

Timothy Gowers famous quotes

You may also like: