Martin Gardner Quotes

28 quotes in 687 categories

• If all sentient beings in the universe disappeared, there would remain a sense in which mathematical objects and theorems would continue to exist even though…
• Politicians, real-estate agents, used-car salesmen, and advertising copy-writers are expected to stretch facts in self-serving directions, but scientists who falsify their results are regarded by…
• If present trends continue, our country may soon find itself far behind many other nations in both science and technology nations where, if you inform…
• Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of boneheads; ridiculous kings and queens, paranoid political leaders, compulsive voyagers, ignorant…
• All mathematicians share... a sense of amazement over the infinite depth and the mysterious beauty and usefulness of mathematics.
• Mathematics is not only real, but it is the only reality. That is that entire universe is made of matter, obviously. And matter is made…
• Speaking about symmetry, look out our window, and you may see a cardinal attacking its reflection in the window. The cardinal is the only bird…
• The universe is almost like a huge magic trick and scientists are trying to figure out how it does what it does.
• If you ask me to tell you anything about the nature of what lies beyond the phaneron… my answer is “How should I know?”… I…
• There are, and always have been, destructive pseudo-scientific notions linked to race and religion; these are the most widespread and damaging. Hopefully, educated people can…
• The last level of metaphor in the Alice books is this: that life, viewed rationally and without illusion, appears to be a nonsense tale told…
• It is part of the pholosophic dullness of our time that there are millions of rational monsters walking about on their hind legs, observing the…
• In many cases a dull proof can be supplemented by a geometric analogue so simple and beautiful that the truth of a theorem is almost…
• Debunking bad science should be constant obligation of the science community, even if it takes time away from serious research or seems to be a…
• One would be hard put to find a set of whole numbers with a more fascinating history and more elegant properties surrounded by greater depths…
• A surprising proportion of mathematicians are accomplished musicians. Is it because music and mathematics share patterns that are beautiful?
• Wouldn't the sentence 'I want to put a hyphen between the words Fish and And and And and Chips in my Fish-and-Chips sign' have been…
• Mathematics is not only real, but it is the only reality.
• In no other branch of mathematics is it so easy for experts to blunder as in probability theory.
• Indeed, there is something to be said for the old math when taught by a poorly trained teacher. He can, at least, get across the…

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