Ernst MachThe mathematician who pursues his studies without clear views of this matter, must often have the uncomfortable feeling that his paper and pencil surpass him in intelligence.361Death
Ernst MachIt would not become physical science to see in its self created, changeable, economical tools, molecules and atoms, realities behind phenomena... The atom must remain a tool for r… ▶373Time
Ernst MachMan is pre-eminently endowed with the power of voluntarily and consciously determining his own point of view. ✨ Ernst Mach (1959). The Analysis of Sensations: And the Relati… ▶324Politics
Ernst MachMathematics may be defined as the economy of counting. There is no problem in the whole of mathematics which cannot be solved by direct counting.379Death
Ernst MachScience itself, therefore, may be regarded as a minimal problem, consisting of the completest possible presentment of facts with the least possible expenditure of thought. ✨… ▶335ThoughtTimeTruth
Ernst MachThought experiment is in any case a necessary precondition for physical experiment. Every experimenter and inventor must have the planned arrangement in his head before translatin… ▶303ThoughtTruth
Ernst MachStrange as it may sound, the power of mathematics rests on its evasion of all unnecessary thought and on its wonderful saving of mental operations. ✨ Ernst Mach, Thomas J. M… ▶3410PoliticsThought
Ernst MachPhysics is experience, arranged in economical order. ✨ Ernst Mach, Thomas J. McCormack (2014). Popular Scientific Lectures, p.197, Cambridge University Press298Life
Ernst MachThe plain man is familiar with blindness and deafness, and knows from his everyday experience that the look of things is influenced by his senses; but it never occurs to him to re… ▶233Life
Ernst MachTo us investigators, the concept 'soul' is irrelevant and a matter for laughter. But matter is an abstraction of exactly the same kind, just as good and just as bad as it is. We k… ▶247Humor
Ernst MachThe presentations and conceptions of the average man of the world are formed and dominated, not by the full and pure desire for knowledge as an end in itself, but by the struggle … ▶259LifeTime
Ernst MachA colour is a physical object as soon as we consider its dependence, for instance, upon its luminous source, upon other colours, upon temperatures, upon spaces, and so forth. 193Reflection
Ernst MachScience always has its origin in the adaptation of thought to some definite field of experience. ✨ Ernst Mach (1959). The Analysis of Sensations: And the Relation of the Phy… ▶249LifeThought
Ernst MachIf our dreams were more regular, more connected, more stable, they would also have more practical importance for us. ✨ Ernst Mach (1914). The Analysis of Sensations, and the… ▶228Life
Ernst MachSimilarly, many a young man, hearing for the first time of the refraction of stellar light, has thought that doubt was cast on the whole of astronomy, whereas nothing is required … ▶206ThoughtTime
Ernst MachArchimedes constructing his circle pays with his life for his defective biological adaptation to immediate circumstances. ✨ Ernst Mach (2012). Knowledge and Error: Sketches … ▶152Life
Ernst MachIn reality, the law always contains less than the fact itself, because it does not reproduce the fact as a whole but only in that aspect of it which is important for us, the rest … ▶209PoliticsTruth
Ernst MachI can accept the theory of relativity as little as I can accept the existence of atoms and other such dogmas.158Life
Ernst MachI once knew an otherwise excellent teacher who compelled his students to perform all their demonstrations with incorrect figures, on the theory that it was the logical connection … ▶169Time
