Clergyman's

The evolution of scientific thought is inseparable from the history of man's efforts to resolve the perplexities of his own existence.
- Tobias Dantzig

The evolution of scientific thought is inseparable from the history of man's efforts to resolve the perplexities of his own existence.
- Tobias Dantzig

The evolution of scientific thought is inseparable from the history of man's efforts to resolve the perplexities of his own existence.
- Tobias Dantzig

The progress of mathematics has been most erratic, and... intuition has played a predominant rôle in it. ...It was the function of intuition to create new forms; it was the acknowledged right of logic to accept or reject these new forms, in whose birth in had no part. ...the children had to live, so while waiting for logic to sanctify their existence, they throve and multiplied.
- Tobias Dantzig

The progress of mathematics has been most erratic, and... intuition has played a predominant rôle in it. ...It was the function of intuition to create new forms; it was the acknowledged right of logic to accept or reject these new forms, in whose birth in had no part. ...the children had to live, so while waiting for logic to sanctify their existence, they throve and multiplied.
- Tobias Dantzig

The progress of mathematics has been most erratic, and... intuition has played a predominant rôle in it. ...It was the function of intuition to create new forms; it was the acknowledged right of logic to accept or reject these new forms, in whose birth in had no part. ...the children had to live, so while waiting for logic to sanctify their existence, they throve and multiplied.
- Tobias Dantzig

In the history of mathematics, the ""how"" always preceded the ""why,"" the technique of the subject preceded its philosophy.
- Tobias Dantzig

In the history of mathematics, the ""how"" always preceded the ""why,"" the technique of the subject preceded its philosophy.
- Tobias Dantzig

The mathematician may be compared to a designer of garments, who is utterly oblivious of the creatures whom his garments may fit. ...The conic sections, invented in an attempt to solve the problem of doubling the alter of an oracle, ended by becoming the orbits followed by the planets... The imaginary magnitudes invented by Cardan and Bombelli describe... the characteristic features of alternating currents. The absolute differential calculus, which originated as a fantasy of Riemann, became the mathematical model for the theory of Relativity. And the matrices which were a complete abstraction in the days of Cayley and Sylvester appear admirably adapted to the... quantum of the atom.
- Tobias Dantzig

The mathematician may be compared to a designer of garments, who is utterly oblivious of the creatures whom his garments may fit. ...The conic sections, invented in an attempt to solve the problem of doubling the alter of an oracle, ended by becoming the orbits followed by the planets... The imaginary magnitudes invented by Cardan and Bombelli describe... the characteristic features of alternating currents. The absolute differential calculus, which originated as a fantasy of Riemann, became the mathematical model for the theory of Relativity. And the matrices which were a complete abstraction in the days of Cayley and Sylvester appear admirably adapted to the... quantum of the atom.
- Tobias Dantzig