If one were to bring ten of the wisest men in the world together and ask them what was the most stupid thing in existence, they would not be able to discover anything so stupid as astrology.
David HilbertRead
The further a mathematical theory is developed, the more harmoniously and uniformly does its construction proceed, and unsuspected relations are disclosed between hitherto separated branches of the science.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Mathematics reveals deeper connections as it develops further.
David Hilbert suggests that as mathematical theories advance, they tend to become more coherent and interconnected, unveiling unexpected relationships between different areas of mathematics. This reflects the inherent unity of mathematical concepts and the way that progress in one domain can illuminate understanding in another.
Themes
MathematicsTheoryRelationsDevelopmentScience
In practice
Example use cases
A mathematician might use this quote to inspire students at a seminar about the beauty of mathematical connections.
More from David Hilbert
All quotes βThe art of doing mathematics consists in finding that special case which contains all the germs of generality.
David HilbertRead
Wir mussen wissen. Wir werden wissen. We must know. We will know. Inscribed on his tomb in Gilttingen.
David HilbertRead
Mathematics is a game played according to certain simple rules with meaningless marks on paper.
David HilbertRead
No one shall expel us from the paradise that Cantor has created for us.
David HilbertRead
Mathematical science is in my opinion an indivisible whole, an organism whose vitality is conditioned upon the connection of its parts.
David HilbertRead
Similar quotes
Science is the acceptance of what works and the rejection of what does not. That needs more courage than we might think.
Jacob BronowskiRead
Evolution, thus, is merely contingent on certain processes articulated by Darwin: variation and selection. No longer is a fixed object transformed, as in transformational evolution, but an entirely new start is, so to speak, made in every generation.
Ernst MayrRead
The phenomena of nature, especially those that fall under the inspection of the astronomer, are to be viewed, not only with the usual attention to facts as they occur, but with the eye of reason and experience.
William HerschelRead
Every three weeks, we bring online as much solar power as we did in all of 2008...Thatβs why, over the past six years, weβve done more than ever before to combat climate change, from the way we produce energy, to the way we use it.
Barack ObamaRead
In the real world, 90% of the money spent on medical research is focused on conditions that are responsible for just 10% of the deaths and disability caused by diseases globally.
Peter SingerRead
And now the announcement of Watson and Crick about DNA. This is for me the real proof of the existence of God.
Salvador DaliRead