David Hilbert
David Hilbert
David Hilbertwas a German mathematician. He is recognized as one of the most influential and universal mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Hilbert discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental ideas in many areas, including invariant theory and the axiomatization of geometry. He also formulated the theory of Hilbert spaces, one of the foundations of functional analysis...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionMathematician
Date of Birth23 January 1862
CountryGermany
Before beginning I should put in three years of intensive study, and I haven't that much time to squander on a probable failure.
Mathematics knows no races or geographic boundaries; for mathematics, the cultural world is one country.
Mathematics is a game played according to certain simple rules with meaningless marks on paper.
Sometimes it happens that a man's circle of horizon becomes smaller and smaller, and as the radius approaches zero it concentrates on one point. And then that becomes his point of view.
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
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.
A mathematical theory is not to be considered complete until you have made it so clear that you can explain it to the first man whom you meet on the street.
Begin with the simplest examples.
If I were to awaken after having slept for a thousand years, my first question would be: Has the Riemann hypothesis been proven?
One must be able to say at all times--instead of points, straight lines, and planes--tables, chairs, and beer mugs
Galileo was no idiot. Only an idiot could believe that science requires martyrdom - that may be necessary in religion, but in time a scientific result will establish itself
One hears a lot of talk about the hostility between scientists and engineers. I don't believe in any such thing. In fact I am quite certain it is untrue... There cannot possibly be anything in it because neither side has anything to do with the other.
Physics is becoming too difficult for the physicists.
We ought not to believe those who today, adopting a philosophical air and with a tone of superiority, prophesy the decline of culter and are content with the unknowable in a self-satisfied way. For us there is no unknowable, and in my opinion there is also non whatsoever for the natural sciences. In place of this foolish unknowable, let our watchword on the contrary be: we must know - we shall know.