Carl Friedrich GaussLife stands before me like an eternal spring with new and brilliant clothes.371Life
Carl Friedrich GaussMathematics is the queen of science, and arithmetic the queen of mathematics.373Humanity
Carl Friedrich GaussI mean the word proof not in the sense of the lawyers, who set two half proofs equal to a whole one, but in the sense of a mathematician, where half proof = 0, and it is demanded … ▶331PoliticsReading
Carl Friedrich GaussIt is always noteworthy that all those who seriously study this science [the theory of numbers] conceive a sort of passion for it.353Love
Carl Friedrich GaussMathematical discoveries, like springtime violets in the woods, have their season which no human can hasten or retard.353HumanityTime
Carl Friedrich GaussWe must admit with humility that, while number is purely a product of our minds, space has a reality outside our minds, so that we cannot completely prescribe its properties a pri… ▶291ThoughtTruth
Carl Friedrich GaussIn mathematics there are no true controversies.336Truth
Carl Friedrich GaussIf others would but reflect on mathematical truths as deeply and as continuously as I have, they would make my discoveries. ✨ The World of Mathematics. Book by J. R. Newman,… ▶325ReadingReflectionTruth
Carl Friedrich GaussHis second motto: Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy laws my services are bound.293Politics
Carl Friedrich GaussMathematics is the queen of the sciences. ✨ Gauss zum Gedächtniss. Book by Wolfgang Sartorius von Waltershausen, 1856.339Reading
Carl Friedrich GaussYou know that I write slowly. This is chiefly because I am never satisfied until I have said as much as possible in a few words, and writing briefly takes far more time than writi… ▶329ReadingTime
Carl Friedrich GaussMathematics is concerned only with the enumeration and comparison of relations.307Humanity
Carl Friedrich GaussThere are problems to whose solution I would attach an infinitely greater importance than to those of mathematics, for example touching ethics, or our relation to God, or concerni… ▶287HopeReadingTime
Carl Friedrich GaussWhen a philosopher says something that is true then it is trivial. When he says something that is not trivial then it is false.299Truth
Carl Friedrich GaussA great part of its theories derives an additional charm from the peculiarity that important propositions, with the impress of simplicity on them, are often easily discovered by i… ▶222DeathReading
Carl Friedrich GaussI protest against the use of infinite magnitude ..., which is never permissible in mathematics.266Philosophy
Carl Friedrich GaussFurther, the dignity of the science itself seems to require that every possible means be explored for the solution of a problem so elegant and so celebrated. ✨ Disquisitione… ▶279Reading
Carl Friedrich GaussIt may be true, that men, who are mere mathematicians, have certain specific shortcomings, but that is not the fault of mathematics, for it is equally true of every other exclusiv… ▶224ReadingTruth
Carl Friedrich GaussMathematicians stand on each other's shoulders.2810Thought
Carl Friedrich GaussThe problem of distinguishing prime numbers from composite numbers and of resolving the latter into their prime factors is known to be one of the most important and useful in arit… ▶225ReadingTruth
Carl Friedrich GaussMathematics is the queen of sciences and number theory is the queen of mathematics. She often condescends to render service to astronomy and other natural sciences, but in all rel… ▶181Reading
Carl Friedrich GaussBy explanation the scientist understands nothing except the reduction to the least and simplest basic laws possible, beyond which he cannot go, but must plainly demand them; from … ▶249Politics
Carl Friedrich GaussMy young friend, I wish that science would intoxicate you as much as our good Göttingen beer! Upon seeing a student staggering down a street.161Politics
Carl Friedrich GaussIn my opinion instruction is very purposeless for such individuals who do no want merely to collect a mass of knowledge, but are mainly interested in exercising (training) their o… ▶161PoliticsTime
Carl Friedrich GaussI have had my results for a long time: but I do not yet know how I am to arrive at them. ✨ The Mind and the Eye: A Study of the Biologist's Standpoint. Book by A. Arber… ▶162ReadingThoughtTime
Carl Friedrich Gauss...as our friend Zach has often noted, in our days those who do the best for astronomy are not the salaried university professors, but so-called dillettanti, physicians, jurists, … ▶162Time
Carl Friedrich GaussTheory attracts practice as the magnet attracts iron.185Reading
Carl Friedrich GaussTo such idle talk it might further be added: that whenever a certain exclusive occupation is coupled with specific shortcomings, it is likewise almost certainly divorced from cert… ▶175Reading
Carl Friedrich GaussAsk her to wait a moment - I am almost done. ✨ Attributed in Men of Mathematics by E. T. Bell, 1937.208Time
Carl Friedrich GaussTo praise it would amount to praising myself. For the entire content of the work... coincides almost exactly with my own meditations which have occupied my mind for the past thirt… ▶143ThoughtTime
