Andre Weil quotes

“God exists since mathematics is consistent, and the Devil exists since we cannot prove it.”
-- Andre Weil

Source : "Mathematical Circles Adieu: A Fourth Collection of Mathematical Stories and Anecdotes". Book by Howard Whitley Eves, 1977.

#Math Quotes #Devil Quotes #Existence Quotes

“In the future, as in the past, the great ideas [of mathematics] must be simplifying ideas, the creator must always be one who clarifies, for himself, and for others, the most complicated issues of formulas and concepts.”
-- Andre Weil

#Past Quotes #Issues Quotes #Discovery Quotes

“Every mathematician worthy of the name has experienced . . . the state of lucid exaltation in which one thought succeeds another as if miraculously . . . this feeling may last for hours at a time, even for days. Once you have experienced it, you are eager to repeat it but unable to do it at will, unless perhaps by dogged work. . . .”
-- Andre Weil

Source : Andre Weil (2012). “The Apprenticeship of a Mathematician”, p.91, Birkhäuser

#Time Quotes #Names Quotes #Feelings Quotes

“Intuition makes much of it; I mean by this the faculty of seeing a connection between things that in appearance are completely different; it does not fail to lead us astray quite often.”
-- Andre Weil

#Mean Quotes #Intuition Quotes #Connections Quotes

“Rigour is to the mathematician what morality is to men.”
-- Andre Weil

#Men Quotes #Morality Quotes #Rigour Quotes

“First rate mathematicians choose first rate people, but second rate mathematicians choose third rate people.”
-- Andre Weil

Source : "Comic Sections: Book of Mathematical Jokes, Humour, Wit and Wisdom". Book by Des MacHale, 1993.

#People Quotes #Firsts Quotes #Mathematician Quotes

“What is crucial is there be laws.”
-- Andre Weil

#Law Quotes

“When a branch of mathematics ceases to interest any but the specialists, it is very near its death, or at any rate dangerously close to a paralysis, from which it can be rescued only by being plunged back into the vivifying source of the science.”
-- Andre Weil

#Branches Quotes #Mathematics Quotes #Source Quotes

“The formulation of the problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill.”

“The question you raise, 'How can such a formulation lead to computations?' doesn't bother me in the least! Throughout my whole life as a mathematician, the possibility of making explicit, elegant computations has always come out by itself, as a byproduct of a thorough conceptual understanding of what was going on. Thus I never bothered about whether what would come out would be suitable for this or that, but just tried to understand - and it always turned out that understanding was all that mattered.”

“Jesus did not bathe this planet with his blood to have you serve the world, the flesh, and the devil. He died to make you holy. You are not your own. First Corinthians 6:20 says 'For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.'”

“The devil gives the best first and the worst last, but the Lord saves the best for last.”

“The devil loves it when we say we believe then prioritize everything in our lives ahead of God.”

“For as from the same piece of clay a potter may fashion either a pot or a tile, so the Devil may shape a witch into a wolf or a cat or even a goat, without subtracting from her and without adding to her at all. For this occurs just as clay is first molded into one, then shaped into another form, for the Devil is a potter and his witches are but clay.”

“life is meaningless unless you bring meaning to it; ... it is up to us to create our own existence. Unless you do something, unless you make something it's as though you aren't there.”

Source : Commencement Speech at Connecticut College, www.graduationwisdom.com. 1980.

“Spontaneity is one of the joys of existence, especially if you prepare for it in advance.”

Source : Alan Dean Foster (1982). “Nor crystal tears”, Del Rey

“There are always reasons for murdering a man. But there is no justification for his existence.”

“God exists since mathematics is consistent, and the Devil exists since we cannot prove it.”

Source : "Mathematical Circles Adieu: A Fourth Collection of Mathematical Stories and Anecdotes". Book by Howard Whitley Eves, 1977.