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 More Quotes by Carl Friedrich Gauss More Quotes From Carl Friedrich Gauss It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment. Carl Friedrich Gauss mathematicalmathematicspossession Life stands before me like an eternal spring with new and brilliant clothes. Carl Friedrich Gauss clothesbrilliantspring Mathematics is the queen of sciences and number theory is the queen of mathematics. She often condescends to render service to astronomy and other natural sciences, but in all relations she is entitled to the first rank. Carl Friedrich Gauss queensnumbersfirsts You know that I write slowly. This is chiefly because I am never satisfied until I have said as much as possible in a few words, and writing briefly takes far more time than writing at length. Carl Friedrich Gauss mathwritingtime It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment. When I have clarified and exhausted a subject, then I turn away from it, in order to go into darkness again; the never-satisfied man is so strange if he has completed a structure, then it is not in order to dwell in it peacefully,but in order to begin another. I imagine the world conqueror must feel thus, who, after one kingdom is scarcely conquered, stretches out his arms for others. Carl Friedrich Gauss learningscienceknowledge There have been only three epoch-making mathematicians, Archimedes, Newton, and Eisenstein. Carl Friedrich Gauss newtonthreescience Theory attracts practice as the magnet attracts iron. Carl Friedrich Gauss ironpracticemath You have no idea, how much poetry there is in the calculation of a table of logarithms! Carl Friedrich Gauss calculationstablesideas If others would but reflect on mathematical truths as deeply and as continuously as I have, they would make my discoveries. Carl Friedrich Gauss truthdiscoveryscience Sin Carl Friedrich Gauss analogiesusewriting Mathematicians stand on each other's shoulders. Carl Friedrich Gauss mathematicianshouldersprogramming We must admit with humility that, while number is purely a product of our minds, space has a reality outside our minds, so that we cannot completely prescribe its properties a priori. Carl Friedrich Gauss humilitymathreality I have had my results for a long time: but I do not yet know how I am to arrive at them. Carl Friedrich Gauss mathtimescience Mathematics is the queen of science, and arithmetic the queen of mathematics. Carl Friedrich Gauss arithmeticqueensmath Does the pursuit of truth give you as much pleasure as before? Surely it is not the knowing but the learning, not the possessing but the acquiring, not the being-there but the getting there that afford the greatest satisfaction. If I have exhausted something, I leave it in order to go again into the dark. Thus is that insatiable man so strange: when he has completed a structure it is not in order to dwell in it comfortably, but to start another. Carl Friedrich Gauss darkmenorder I mean the word proof not in the sense of the lawyers, who set two half proofs equal to a whole one, but in the sense of a mathematician, where half proof = 0, and it is demanded for proof that every doubt becomes impossible. Carl Friedrich Gauss mathtwomean Arc, amplitude, and curvature sustain a similar relation to each other as time, motion, and velocity, or as volume, mass, and density. Carl Friedrich Gauss densityvelocitymass Ask her to wait a moment - I am almost done. Carl Friedrich Gauss powerfulwittyfunny 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. Carl Friedrich Gauss importantproblemnumbers The enchanting charms of this sublime science reveal only to those who have the courage to go deeply into it. Carl Friedrich Gauss enchantingcharmsublime
