The world of ideas which it [mathematics] discloses or illuminates, the contemplation of divine beauty and order which it induces, the harmonious connexion of its parts, the infinite hierarchy and absolute evidence of the truths with which it is concerned,… — James Joseph Sylvester Copy Share Image
...There is no study in the world which brings into more harmonious action all the faculties of the mind than [mathematics], ... or, like… — James Joseph Sylvester Copy Share Image
Number, place, and combination . . . the three intersecting but distinct spheres of thought to which all mathematical ideas admit of being referred. — James Joseph Sylvester Copy Share Image
The world of ideas which it [mathematics] discloses or illuminates, the contemplation of divine beauty and order which it induces, the harmonious connexion of… — James Joseph Sylvester Copy Share Image
The object of pure physics is the unfolding of the laws of the intelligible world; the object of pure mathematics that of unfolding the… — James Joseph Sylvester Copy Share Image
As the prerogative of Natural Science is to cultivate a taste for observation, so that of Mathematics is, almost from the starting point, to… — James Joseph Sylvester Copy Share Image
[Mathematics] unceasingly calls forth the faculties of observation and comparison; one of its principal weapons is induction: it has frequent recourse to trial and… — James Joseph Sylvester Copy Share Image
Aspiring to these wide generalizations, the analysis of quadratic functions soars to a pitch from whence it may look proudly down on the feeble… — James Joseph Sylvester Copy Share Image
“Mathematics is not a book confined within a cover and bound between brazen clasps, whose contents it need only patience to ransack; it is… — James Joseph Sylvester Copy Share Image
The object of pure Physic[s] is the unfolding of the laws of the intelligible world; the object of pure Mathematic[s] that of unfolding the… — James Joseph Sylvester Copy Share Image
Chemistry has the same quickening and suggestive influence upon the algebraist as a visit to the Royal Academy, or the old masters may be… — James Joseph Sylvester Copy Share Image
The theory of ramification is one of pure colligation, for it takes no account of magnitude or position; geometrical lines are used, but these… — James Joseph Sylvester Copy Share Image