We all know that players will hit a few more home runs than usual in some years and a few less in others. But the mathematics of chance also predicts that some years they’ll hit a lot more, and some years a lot less. – Leonard Mlodinow
What affected me most profoundly was the realization that the sciences of cryptography and mathematics are very elegant, pure sciences. I found that the ends for which these pure sciences are used are less elegant. – James Sanborn
The object of pure physics is the unfolding of the laws of the intelligible world; the object of pure mathematics that of unfolding the laws of human intelligence. – James Joseph Sylvester
The Theory of Groups is a branch of mathematics in which one does something to something and then compares the result with the result obtained from doing the same thing to something else, or something else to the same thing. – James Newman
The most important single thing about string theory is that it’s a highly mathematical theory, and the mathematics holds together in a very tight and consistent way. It contains in its basic structure both quantum mechanics and the theory of gravity. That’s big news. – Leonard Susskind
I still don’t like authority exercised without reason. But they laugh at you at Cambridge if you say that sort of thing. For them, the law is a system of rules not that different from mathematics. – John Lloyd
The abstract analysis of the world by mathematics and physics rests on the concepts of space and time. – James J. Gibson
Apart from two periods of intense study, of music between the ages of 12 and 14 and of mathematics between the ages of 14 and 16, I coasted, daydreaming, through most of my school years. – James W. Black
In my schooling through high school, I excelled mainly in chemistry, physics and mathematics. – James Rainwater
I was graduated in 1940 with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Social Science but a major in Mathematics, a paradoxical combination that was prognostic of my future interests. – Kenneth Arrow
I abandoned chemistry to concentrate on mathematics and physics. In 1942, I travelled to Cambridge to take the scholarship examination at Trinity College, received an award and entered the university in October 1943. – John Pople
If mathematics is to be understood widely, we need to emphasise its elegance and its applications. Sometimes it seems that universities want to emphasise how difficult it is! – Johnny Ball
We do not learn by inference and deduction and the application of mathematics to philosophy, but by direct intercourse and sympathy. – Richard M. Nixon
To me, mathematics, computer science, and the arts are insanely related. They’re all creative expressions. – Sebastian Thrun
My elementary education was at Christ Church infant school and St. Stephen’s junior school. At St. Stephen’s, I encountered my first real mentor, the headmaster Mr. Broakes. He must have spotted something unusual in me, for he spent lots of time encouraging my interest in mathematics. – Richard J. Roberts
I am a passionate reader, having been tutored very early by my mother. I avidly devoured all books on chemistry that I could find. Formal chemistry at school seemed boring by comparison, and my performance was routine. In contrast, I did spectacularly well in mathematics and sailed through classes and exams with ease. – Richard J. Roberts
Mathematics as an expression of the human mind reflects the active will, the contemplative reason, and the desire for aesthetic perfection. Its basic elements are logic and intuition, analysis and construction, generality and individuality. – Richard Courant
My decision to leave applied mathematics for economics was in part tied to the widely-held popular belief in the 1960s that macroeconomics had made fundamental inroads into controlling business cycles and stopping dysfunctional unemployment and inflation. – Robert C. Merton
I did not have a very literary background. I came to poetry from the sciences and mathematics, and also through an interest in Japanese and Chinese poetry in translation. – Robert Morgan
When I finished high school, it was clear to me that I would study mathematics, even if I also considered economics and psychology. – Reinhard Selten
Creating a body of mathematics is about intellectual labor, not some kind of transcendental revelation. There are plenty of important components of European fractal geometry that are missing from the African version. – Ron Eglash
One of the things that ultimately led me to leave mathematics and go into political science was thinking I could prevent nuclear war. – Paul Wolfowitz
It has become almost a cliche to remark that nobody boasts of ignorance of literature, but it is socially acceptable to boast ignorance of science and proudly claim incompetence in mathematics. – Richard Dawkins
I am severely dyslexic, so I’m not the person who can do a lot of typing, writing and mathematics. I don’t excel in anything except in things that had to do with creativity and things with my hands. I like to build things and take things apart. – Raha Moharrak
I won some genetic lottery. I always happened to be strangely good at mathematics in my head. I just popped out weird. – Rodney Brooks