Discovery is the privilege of the child: the child who has no fear of being once again wrong, of looking like an idiot, of not being serious, of not doing things like everyone else.
Alexander GrothendieckRead
The introduction of the cipher 0 or the group concept was general nonsense too, and mathematics was more or less stagnating for thousands of years because nobody was around to take such childish steps.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The progress of mathematics was hindered by a lack of innovative ideas and concepts, likening early mathematical developments to childish endeavors.
Alexander Grothendieck reflects on the historical stagnation in mathematics, attributing it to the absence of creativity in introducing essential concepts like the cipher 0 and group theory. He suggests that foundational ideas, which may seem trivial or childish, are crucial for the advancement of the field, emphasizing that significant progress often requires bold and innovative thinking.
Themes
MathematicsInnovationProgressCreativityHistory
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about the history of mathematics, one could use this quote to illustrate the importance of foundational concepts.
More from Alexander Grothendieck
All quotes →Similar quotes
It will be another million years, at least, before we understand the primes.
Paul ErdosRead
But just as astronomy succeeded astrology, following Kepler's discovery of planetary regularities, the discoveries of these many principles in empirical explorations of intellectual processes in machines should lead to a science, eventually.
Marvin MinskyRead
So how can we test the idea that the transition from nonlife to life is simple enough to happen repeatedly? The most obvious and straightforward way is to search for a second form of life on Earth. No planet is more Earth-like than Earth itself, so if the path to life is easy, then life should have started up many times over right here.
Paul DaviesRead
Nobody spends any money on smallpox unless they worry about a bio-terrorist recreating it.
Bill GatesRead
[Mathematics] is security. Certainty. Truth. Beauty. Insight. Structure. Architecture. I see mathematics, the part of human knowledge that I call mathematics, as one thing - one great, glorious thing. Whether it is differential topology, or functional analysis, or homological algebra, it is all one thing. ... They are intimately interconnected, they are all facets of the same thing. That interconnection, that architecture, is secure truth and is beauty. That's what mathematics is to me.
Paul HalmosRead
It is hard to look at the tumor and not come away with the feeling that one has encountered a powerful monster in its infancy
Siddhartha MukherjeeRead