von Neumann, John (1903 - 1957)
In mathematics you
don't understand
things. You just get
used to them.
In G. Zukav, The
Dancing Wu Li
Masters.
Valery, Paul (1871 - 1945)
In the physical world, one cannot increase the size or quantity of anything without changing its quality. Similar figures exist only in pure geometry.
van Vleck, E. B.
This new integral of
Lebesgue is proving
itself a wonderful
tool. I might
compare it with a
modern Krupp gun, so
easily does it
penetrate barriers
which were
impregnable.
Bulletin of the
American
Mathematical
Society, vol. 23,
1916.
Veblen, Thorstein (1857-1929)
The outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where only one grew before.
The Place of Science in Modern Civilization and Other Essays.
Veblen, Thorstein (1857-1929)
Invention is the mother of necessity.
J. Gross, The Oxford Book of Aphorisms, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983.
Voltaire (1694-1778)
Vous avez trouve par
de long ennuis
Ce que Newton
trouva sans sortir
de chez
lui.
(You have
found with much
trouble
What
Newton found without
leaving his
home.)
[Written
to La Condamine
after his
measurement of the
equator.]
In J. R. Newman
(ed.), The World of
Mathematics, New
York: Simon and
Schuster, 1956.
Voltaire (1694-1778)
He who has heard the
same thing told by
12,000 eye-witnesses
has only 12,000
probabilities, which
are equal to one
strong probability,
which is far from
certain.
In J. R. Newman
(ed.), The World of
Mathematics, New
York: Simon and
Schuster, 1956.
Voltaire (1694-1778)
There are no sects
in geometry.
W. H. Auden and L.
Kronenberger (eds.),
The Viking Book of
Aphorisms, New York:
Viking Press, 1962.