Topic: nature
The structures with which mathematics deals are more like lace, the leaves of trees and the play of the light and shadow on a human face than they are like buildings and machines, the least of their representatives.
TOPICS: structure, nature, philosophy
I am so in favor of the actual infinite that instead of admitting that Nature abhors it, as is commonly said, I hold that Nature makes frequent use of it everywhere, in order to show more effectively the perfections of its Author.
SOURCE: Nouveaux Essais de l’Entendement humain
Everything in nature adheres to the cone, the cylinder and the cube.
Although to penetrate into the intimate mysteries of nature and thence to learn the true causes of phenomena is not allowed to us, nevertheless it can happen that a certain fictive hypothesis may suffice for explaining many phenomena.
TOPICS: philosophy, nature, conjectures
The profound study of nature is the most fertile source of mathematical discoveries.
SOURCE: Morris Kline, Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times, New York, 1972
Mathematical Analysis is as extensive as nature herself.
The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living.
I regret that it has been necessary for me in this lecture to administer such a large dose of four-dimensional geometry. I do not apologize, because I am really not responsible for the fact that nature in its most fundamental aspect is four-dimensional. Things are what they are.