I like mathematics because it is not human and has nothing particular to do with this planet or with the whole accidental universe - because, like Spinoza's God, it won't love us in return.
Interpretation
Mathematics is an abstract discipline that exists independently of human emotions and earthly concerns.
In this quote, Bertrand Russell expresses his fascination with mathematics as a realm that transcends human influence and the chaotic nature of the universe. He suggests that mathematics is impersonal and objective, akin to Spinoza's concept of God, which does not reciprocate human feelings or attachments. This impersonal nature of mathematics offers a unique perspective on the search for truth and meaning in a universe that often appears random and subjective.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of STEM education, one could reference this quote to emphasize the objective beauty of mathematics.
St. Paul introduced an entirely novel view of marriage, that it existed primarily to prevent the sin of fornication. It is just as if one were to maintain that the sole reason for baking bread is to prevent people from stealing cake.
Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
Of these austerer virtues the love of truth is the chief, and in mathematics, more than elsewhere, the love of truth may find encouragement for waning faith. Every great study is not only an end in itself, but also a means of creating and sustaining a lofty habit of mind; and this purpose should be kept always in view throughout the teaching and learning of mathematics.
At all times, except when a monarch could enforce his will, war has been facilitated by the fact that vigorous males, confident of victory, enjoyed it, while their females admired them for their prowess.
Moreover, the attitude that one ought to believe such and such a proposition, independently of the question whether there is evidence in its favor, is an attitude which produces hostility to evidence and causes us to close our minds to every fact that does not suit our prejudices.
Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.
While the finish given to our picture of the world by the theory of relativity has already been absorbed into the general scientific consciousness, this has scarcely occurred to the same extent with those aspects of the general problem of knowledge which have been elucidated by the quantum theory.
Rising carbon price is essential to 'decarbonize' the economy - to remove the nation towards the era beyond fossil fuels.
... chemistry is a trade for people without enough imagination to be physicists.
Astronauts will remain the explorers, the pioneers-the first to go back to moon and on to Mars. But I think it's really important to make space space available to as many people as we can. It's going to be a while before we can launch people for less than $20 million a ticket. But that day is coming.
Understanding vision and building visual systems is really understanding intelligence.
O telescope, instrument of much knowledge, more precious than any sceptre!
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