Guided only by their feeling for symmetry, simplicity, and generality, and an indefinable sense of the fitness of things, creative mathematicians now, as in the past, are inspired by the art of mathematics rather than by any prospect of ultimate usefulness.

  • -- Eric Temple Bell 埃里克·坦普尔·贝尔

现在的创造性数学家和过去一样,只受他们对对称性、简明性和普遍性的感觉以及对事物适应性的一种无法定义的感觉的指导,他们受到数学艺术的启发,而不是受到任何最终有用的前景的启发。

相关名言

A mathematician is a person who can find analogies between theorems; a better mathematician is one who can see analogies between proofs and the best mathematician can notice analogies between theories.

数学家是能在定理之间找到类比的人;一个更好的数学家能看到证明之间的类比,而最好的数学家能注意到理论之间的类比。

Music embodies feeling without forcing it to contend and combine with thought, as it is forced in most arts and especially in the art of words.

音乐体现的是情感,而不是像大多数艺术,尤其是文字艺术那样,强迫它与思想斗争和结合。

I am only conscious of any satisfaction in Scientific Reading or thinking when it rounds off into a poetical generality and vagueness.

我只有在科学阅读或思考的过程中才会感到满足,因为它最终会变成诗意的概括性和模糊性。

The trouble about man is twofold. He cannot learn truths which are too complicated; he forgets truths which are too simple.

关于人的烦恼是双重的。他不能学习太复杂的真理;他忘记了太简单的真理。

Proof is an idol before whom the pure mathematician tortures himself.

证明是一个偶像,纯数学家在它面前折磨自己。

Slow thinking has the feeling of something you do. It's deliberate.

慢思考是指你做事的感觉。这是经过深思熟虑的。

Brevity is the soul of wit.

简洁是智慧的灵魂。