Analogies Quote by Gian-Carlo Rota

Mathematicians use intuition, conjecture and guesswork all the time except when they are in the classroom.

— Joseph Warren

A mathematician experiments, amasses information, makes a conjecture, finds out that it does not work, gets confused and then tries to recover. A good…

— Steven G. Krantz

“Knowing mathematics is like wearing a pair of X-ray specs that reveal hidden structures underneath the messy and chaotic surface of the world. Math…

— Jordan Ellenberg

The result of the mathematician's creative work is demonstrative reasoning, a proof; but the proof is discovered by plausible reasoning, by guessing.

— George Polya

Mathematics is the summit of human thinking. It has all the creativity and imagination that you can find in all kinds of art, but…

— Meir Shalev

Mathematicians need proofs to keep them honest. All technical areas of human activity need reality checks. It is not enough to believe that something…

— Ian Stewart

In my experience most mathematicians are intellectually lazy.

— Francis Crick

A mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they…

— G. H. Hardy

Some humans are mathematicians-others aren't.

— Jane Goodall

Mathematicians, who are only mathematicians, have exact minds, provided all things are explained to them by means of definitions and axioms; otherwise they are…

— Blaise Pascal

Mathematicians are stiff abstract guys. They'll tell you they don't need the physical world. But then when I show them my bubbles they're like…

— Tom Noddy

A typical mathematician does not actively try to be useful. Individual mathematicians are motivated primarily by a subtle mixture of ambition and intellectual curiosity,…

— Timothy Gowers