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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.
Times
Chairs
Able
Planes
Must
Points
Beer
Tables
Straight
Instead
Mugs
Lines
Mug

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Mathematics knows no races or geographic boundaries for mathematics, the cultural world is one country.
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I do not see that the sex of the candidate is an argument against her admission as a Privatdozent. After all, the Senate is not a bathhouse. Objecting to sex discrimination being the reason for rejection of Emmy Noether's application to join the faculty at the University of Gottingen.
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The arithmetical symbols are written diagrams and the geometrical figures are graphic formulas.
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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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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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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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Indignant reply to the blatent sex discrimination expressed in a colleague's opposition when Hilbert proposed appointing Emmy Noether as the first woman professor at their university.
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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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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 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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Mathematics is a game played according to certain simple rules with meaningless marks on paper.
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Every mathematical discipline goes through three periods of development: the naive, the formal, and the critical.
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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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The art of doing mathematics consists in finding that special case which contains all the germs of generality.
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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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Before beginning [to try to prove Fermat's Last Theorem] I should have to put in three years of intensive study, and I haven't that much time to squander on a probable failure.
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Some people have got a mental horizon of radius zero and call it their point of view.
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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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Geometry is the most complete science.
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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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