Quotes by Mathematicians

I do engineering, not religion. Daniel J. Bernstein

Religion Engineering

I have discovered that there are two types of command interfaces in the world of computing: good interfaces and user interfaces. Daniel J. Bernstein

Good World Types Computing Command Discovered User Two

I thank God for not making me a computer scientist. Daniel J. Bernstein

God Me Thank God Computer Making Scientist Thank

The average user doesn't give a damn what happens, as long as (1) it works and (2) it's fast. Daniel J. Bernstein

Long Damn Give Happens Average User Works Fast

From a security perspective, if you're connected, you're screwed. Daniel J. Bernstein

You Perspective Security Screwed Connected

No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man; no other idea has so fruitfully stimulated his intellect; yet no other concept stands in greater need of clarification than that of the infinite. David Hilbert

Man Other Clarification Spirit Idea Concept Greater Stimulated His Intellect Question Than Infinite Moved Stands Ever Profoundly Need

No one shall expel us from the paradise that Cantor has created for us. David Hilbert

Paradise Shall No-One Expel Us Created

The infinite! No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man. David Hilbert

Man Other Spirit Question Infinite Moved Ever Profoundly

The further a mathematical theory is developed, the more harmoniously and uniformly does its construction proceed, and unsuspected relations are disclosed between hitherto separated branches of the science. David Hilbert

Science Construction Harmoniously Relations Further More Developed Between Does Mathematical Branches Hitherto Proceed Separated Theory

Science makes no pretension to eternal truth or absolute truth. E. T. Bell

Truth Science Pretension Absolute Absolute Truth Makes Eternal

Out of fifty mathematical papers presented in brief at such a meeting, it is a rare mathematician indeed who really understands what more than half a dozen are about. E. T. Bell

Rare Half Meeting Indeed Papers Out About More Understands Mathematical Mathematician Than Really Fifty Who Brief Dozen Presented

The longer mathematics lives the more abstract - and therefore, possibly also the more practical - it becomes. E. T. Bell

Mathematics Possibly More Abstract Longer Also Practical Becomes Therefore Lives

The pursuit of pretty formulas and neat theorems can no doubt quickly degenerate into a silly vice, but so can the quest for austere generalities which are so very general indeed that they are incapable of application to any particular. E. T. Bell

I don't care about movies. I tend to play badminton once a week. Edward Witten

Care Once Once A Week About Tend Week Badminton dont Care Movies Play

It's an exaggeration to say that I came up with M-theory. Edward Witten

Exaggeration Say Came Up

Quantum mechanics brought an unexpected fuzziness into physics because of quantum uncertainty, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. String theory does so again because a point particle is replaced by a string, which is more spread out. Edward Witten

As of now, string theorists have no explanation of why there are three large dimensions as well as time, and the other dimensions are microscopic. Proposals about that have been all over the map. Edward Witten

Time Three Other String Dimensions About Proposals Over Well Been Microscopic Explanation Large Map Now Why

We know a lot of things, but what we don't know is a lot more. Edward Witten

More Know Lot Things

As far as extra dimensions are concerned, very tiny extra dimensions wouldn't be perceived in everyday life, just as atoms aren't: we see many atoms together but we don't see atoms individually. Edward Witten

Life Together Everyday Life Atoms Extra Everyday Dimensions See Perceived Individually Concerned Very Tiny Just As Far As Far Many

As for the forces, electromagnetism and gravity we experience in everyday life. But the weak and strong forces are beyond our ordinary experience. So in physics, lots of the basic building blocks take 20th- or perhaps 21st-century equipment to explore. Edward Witten

Having those extra dimensions and therefore many ways the string can vibrate in many different directions turns out to be the key to being able to describe all the particles that we see. Edward Witten

Spreading out the particle into a string is a step in the direction of making everything we're familiar with fuzzy. You enter a completely new world where things aren't at all what you're used to. Edward Witten

You World Everything String Enter Out Fuzzy Direction Step New Particle Making Spreading Familiar New World Where Used Things

The theory has to be interpreted that extra dimensions beyond the ordinary four dimensions the three spatial dimensions plus time are sufficiently small that they haven't been observed yet. Edward Witten

Time Three Extra Dimensions Plus Small Observed Beyond Been Ordinary Spatial Theory Sufficiently Four Interpreted