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One must be able to say at all times--instead of points, straight lines, and planes--tables, chairs, and beer mugs

David Hilbert

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David Hilbert
Age: 81 †
Born: 1862
Born: January 23
Died: 1943
Died: February 14
Mathematician
Philosopher
Physicist
University Teacher
Königsberg i. Pr.
Tables
Straight
Instead
Mugs
Lines
Mug
Times
Chairs
Able
Planes
Must
Points
Beer

More quotes by David Hilbert

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[On Cantor's work:] The finest product of mathematical genius and one of the supreme achievements of purely intellectual human activity.
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Mathematical science is in my opinion an indivisible whole, an organism whose vitality is conditioned upon the connection of its parts.
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Mathematics is a game played according to certain simple rules with meaningless marks on paper.
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Sometimes it happens that a man's circle of horizon becomes smaller and smaller, and as the radius approaches zero it concentrates on one point. And then that becomes his point of view.
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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.
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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.
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Physics is becoming too difficult for the physicists.
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Is mathematics doomed to suffer the same fate as other sciences that have split into separate branches?... Mathematics is, in my opinion, an indivisible whole... May the new century bring with it ingenious champions and many zealous and enthusiastic disciples.
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The infinite! No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man.
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Geometry is the most complete science.
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If one were to bring ten of the wisest men in the world together and ask them what was the most stupid thing in existence, they would not be able to discover anything so stupid as astrology.
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Every kind of science, if it has only reached a certain degree of maturity, automatically becomes a part of mathematics.
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I didn't work especially hard at mathematics at school, because I knew that's what I'd be doing later.
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The art of doing mathematics consists in finding that special case which contains all the germs of generality.
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Every mathematical discipline goes through three periods of development: the naive, the formal, and the critical.
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Geometry, like arithmetic, requires for its logical development only a small number of simple, fundamental principles. These fundamental principles are called the axioms of geometry.
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The arithmetical symbols are written diagrams and the geometrical figures are graphic formulas.
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No one shall expel us from the paradise which Cantor has created for us. Expressing the importance of Cantor's set theory in the development of mathematics.
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The tool which serves as intermediary between theory and practice, between thought and observation, is mathematics it is mathematics which builds the linking bridges and gives the ever more reliable forms.
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Galileo was no idiot. Only an idiot could believe that science requires martyrdom - that may be necessary in religion, but in time a scientific result will establish itself.
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