In mathematics there are no true controversies. Carl Friedrich Gauss More Quotes by Carl Friedrich Gauss More Quotes From Carl Friedrich Gauss Sophie Germain proved to the world that even a woman can accomplish something in the most rigorous and abstract of sciences and for that reason would well have deserved an honorary degree. Carl Friedrich Gauss sophiewomendegrees I believe you are more believing in the Bible than I. I am not, and, you are much happier than I. Carl Friedrich Gauss i-believebelieve Less depends upon the choice of words than upon this, that their introduction shall be justified by pregnant theorems. Carl Friedrich Gauss justifiedchoicesintroduction No contradictions will arise as long as Finite Man does not mistake the infinite for something fixed, as long as he is not led by an acquired habit of mind to regard the infinite as something bounded. Carl Friedrich Gauss mistakemenlong To praise it would amount to praising myself. For the entire content of the work... coincides almost exactly with my own meditations which have occupied my mind for the past thirty or thirty-five years. Carl Friedrich Gauss meditationpastyears With a thousand joys I would accept a nonacademic job for which industriousness, accuracy, loyalty, and such are sufficient without specialized knowledge, and which would give a comfortable living and sufficient leisure, in order to sacrifice to my gods [mathematical research]. For example, I hope to get the editting of the census, the birth and death lists in local districts, not as a job, but for my pleasure and satisfaction. Carl Friedrich Gauss loyaltyjobsscience The total number of Dirichlet's publications is not large: jewels are not weighed on a grocery scale. Carl Friedrich Gauss groceriesjewelsnumbers By explanation the scientist understands nothing except the reduction to the least and simplest basic laws possible, beyond which he cannot go, but must plainly demand them; from them however he deduces the phenomena absolutely completely as necessary. Carl Friedrich Gauss demandlawscience His second motto: Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy laws my services are bound. Carl Friedrich Gauss naturelawart It is always noteworthy that all those who seriously study this science [the theory of numbers] conceive a sort of passion for it. Carl Friedrich Gauss passionstudynumbers There are problems to whose solution I would attach an infinitely greater importance than to those of mathematics, for example touching ethics, or our relation to God, or concerning our destiny and our future; but their solution lies wholly beyond us and completely outside the province of science. Carl Friedrich Gauss mathsciencelying My young friend, I wish that science would intoxicate you as much as our good Göttingen beer! Upon seeing a student staggering down a street. Carl Friedrich Gauss young-friendsbeerscience In my opinion instruction is very purposeless for such individuals who do no want merely to collect a mass of knowledge, but are mainly interested in exercising (training) their own powers. One doesn't need to grasp such a one by the hand and lead him to the goal, but only from time to time give him suggestions, in order that he may reach it himself in the shortest way. Carl Friedrich Gauss exerciseeducationscience I am coming more and more to the conviction that the necessity of our geometry cannot be demonstrated, at least neither by, nor for, the human intellect. . . Geometry should be ranked, not with arithmetic, which is purely aprioristic, but with mechanics. Carl Friedrich Gauss mechanicmathscience In the last two months I have been very busy with my own mathematical speculations, which have cost me much time, without my having reached my original goal. Again and again I was enticed by the frequently interesting prospects from one direction to the other, sometimes even by will-o'-the-wisps, as is not rare in mathematic speculations. Carl Friedrich Gauss one-directiontwointeresting ...as our friend Zach has often noted, in our days those who do the best for astronomy are not the salaried university professors, but so-called dillettanti, physicians, jurists, and so forth.Lamenting the fragmentary time left to a professor has remaining after fulfilling his teaching duties. Carl Friedrich Gauss teachingeducationscience I have the vagary of taking a lively interest in mathematical subjects only where I may anticipate ingenious association of ideas and results recommending themselves by elegance or generality. Carl Friedrich Gauss mayscienceideas For three days now this angel, almost too heavenly for earth has been my fiancée ... Life stands before me like an eternal spring with new and brilliant colours. Upon his engagement to Johanne Osthof of Brunswick; they married 9 Oct 1805. Carl Friedrich Gauss angelspringscience To such idle talk it might further be added: that whenever a certain exclusive occupation is coupled with specific shortcomings, it is likewise almost certainly divorced from certain other shortcomings. Carl Friedrich Gauss occupationcertainmight The problem of distinguishing prime numbers from composite numbers and of resolving the latter into their prime factors is known to be one of the most important and useful in arithmetic. It has engaged the industry and wisdom of ancient and modern geometers to such an extent that it would be superfluous to discuss the problem at length. ... Further, the dignity of the science itself seems to require that every possible means be explored for the solution of a problem so elegant and so celebrated. Carl Friedrich Gauss importantnumbersmean
