Math Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old math quotes, math sayings, and math proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is. John Louis Von Neumann
Mathematicians are like Frenchman: Whatever you say to them, they translate it into their own language and forthwith it means something entirely different. Johann Von Goethe
Mathematics are well and good but nature keeps dragging us around by the nose. Albert Einstein
I never did very well in math—I could never seem to persuade the teacher that I hadn't meant my answers literally. Calvin Trillin
Arithmetic is where numbers fly like pigeons in and out of your head. Carl Sandburg
The essence of mathematics is not to make simple things complicated, but to make complicated things simple. S. Gudder
Let us grant that the pursuit of mathematics is a divine madness of the human spirit, a refuge from the groading urgency of contingent happenings. Alfred North Whitehead
Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting. Gottfried Leibniz
Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house. Robert Heinlein
With my full philosophical rucksack, I can only climb slowly up the mountain of mathematics. Ludwig Wittgenstein
Mathematics is the supreme judge; from its decisions, there is no appeal. Tobias Dantzig
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. Bertrand Russell
Mathematics is the queen of sciences, and arithmetic is the queen of mathematics. Karl Friedrich Gauss
For the things of this world cannot be made known without a knowledge of mathematics. Roger Bacon
Pure mathematics is the world's best game. It is more absorbing than chess, more of a gamble than poker, and lasts longer than monopoly. It's free, it can be played anywhere— Archimedes did it in a bathtub. Richard J. Trudeau
Mathematics is the language of size. Lancelot Hogben
A man of a strong affinity for facts is thoroughly persuaded of the truths of arithmetic. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Mathematics is the science which draws necessary conclusions. Benjamin Pierce
Mathematics is a tool specially suited for dealing with abstract concepts of any kind and there is no limit to its power in this field. Paul Dirac
Mathematical rigor is like clothing; in its style, it ought to suit the occasion, and it diminishes comfort and restrains freedom of movement if it's either too loose or too tight. G.F. Simmons
Whoever despises the high wisdom of mathematics nourishes himself on delusion. Leonardo da Vinci
How can it be that mathematics, being, after all, a product of human thought independent of experience, is so admirably adapted to the objects of reality? Albert Einstein
For a physicist, mathematics is not just a tool by means of which phenomena can be calculated, it is the main source of concepts and principles by means of which new theories can be created. Freeman Dyson
I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning. Plato
You know we all became mathematicians for the same reason: we were lazy. Max Rosenlicht
Mathematics is not yet capable of coping with the naivete of the mathematician himself. Abraham Kaplan
Life is good for only two things, discovering mathematics and teaching mathematics. Simeon Poisson
The greatest unsolved theorem in mathematics is why some people are better at it than others. Adrian Mathesis
I'm sorry to say that the subject I most disliked was mathematics. I have thought about it. I think the reason was that mathematics leaves no room for argument. If you made a mistake, that was all there was to it. Malcolm X
Number theorists are like lotus-eaters— having once tasted of this food they can never give it up. Leopold Kronecker