"Pedantry and mastery are opposite attitudes toward rules.……" — George Polya
"Pedantry and mastery are opposite attitudes toward rules. To apply a rule to the letter, rigidly, unquestioningly, in cases where it fits and in cases where it does not fit, is pedantry. [...] To apply a rule with natural ease, with judgment, noticing the cases where it fits, and without ever letting the words of the rule obscure the purpose of the action or the opportunities of the situation, is mastery."
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George Polya
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47 Quotes by George Polya
George Polya has 47 quotes on this site.
A few more worth reading:
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Quite often, when an idea that could be helpful presents itself, we do not appreciate it, for it is so…
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The world is anxious to admire that apex and culmination of modern mathematics: a theorem so perfectly general that no…
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The elegance of a mathematical theorem is directly proportional to the number of independent ideas one can see in the…
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The first rule of discovery is to have brains and good luck. The second rule of discovery is to sit…
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Mathematics is the cheapest science. Unlike physics or chemistry, it does not require any expensive equipment. All one needs for…
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When introduced at the wrong time or place, good logic may be the worst enemy of good teaching.
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Where should I start? Start from the statement of the problem. ... What can I do? Visualize the problem as…
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If you have to prove a theorem, do not rush. First of all, understand fully what the theorem says, try…
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A great discovery solves a great problem, but there is a grain of discovery in the solution of any problem.…
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Look around when you have got your first mushroom or made your first discovery: they grow in clusters.
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The future mathematician ... should solve problems, choose the problems which are in his line, meditate upon their solution, and…
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If the proof starts from axioms, distinguishes several cases, and takes thirteen lines in the text book ... it may…
See all 47 quotes by George Polya »
More Action Quotes
This quote is filed under Action Quotes,
one of 8,300 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.
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Revolutionaries do not make revolutions. The revolutionaries are those who know when power is lying in the street and then…
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Under conditions of tyranny it is far easier to act than to think.
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Action without a name, a who attached to it, is meaningless.
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All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.
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Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate…
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Well begun is half done.
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A tragedy is a representation of an action that is whole and complete and of a certain magnitude. A whole…
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Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.
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We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.
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Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and choice, is thought to aim at some good; and for…
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What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition…
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