David Mumford Quotes
Algebraic geometry seems to have acquired the reputation of being esoteric, exclusive, and very abstract, with adherents who are secretly plotting to take over all the rest of mathematics. In one respect this last point is accurate.
Quotes to Explore
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I was fortunate to find an extraordinary mathematics and applied mathematics program in Toronto.
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Pure mathematics is on the whole distinctly more useful than applied. For what is useful above all is technique, and mathematical technique is taught mainly through pure mathematics.
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Now, my father Matthias was not only eminent on account of is nobility, but had a higher commendation on account of his righteousness, and was in great reputation in Jerusalem, the greatest city we have.
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In a way my reputation has become that of the curmudgeon.
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A novelist who writes nothing for 10 years finds his reputation rising. Because I keep on producing books they say there must be something wrong with this fellow.
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Poetry is a form of mathematics, a highly rigorous relationship with words.
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I wanted to be a painter, somewhere between Abstract Expressionism and Pop.
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I have the reputation of being easygoing. But inside, I'm like nails. I will kill.
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Consequently he who wishes to attain to human perfection, must therefore first study Logic, next the various branches of Mathematics in their proper order, then Physics, and lastly Metaphysics.
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You know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you're cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism.
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I had a national and international reputation. I had written the history and articles. So I brought to the Trotskyist movement some international reputation.
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I first knew Laurie Lewis by her considerable reputation as a fiddle player and a writer of songs. When an opportunity came along to sing with her I seized it. Getting to know her as a singer and a person has been pure pleasure. Her voice is a rare combination of grit and grace, strength and delicacy. Her stories are always true.
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I really don't think it would be wise to speculate in an abstract way about the circumstances in which it might be on the agenda.
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Conscience and reputation are two things. Conscience is due to yourself, reputation to your neighbour.
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Oh, I hate the cheap severity of abstract ethics!
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I get to live down my reputation for being cantankerous if I slowly evolve towards being a really good live show.
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Your mother told you all that I could give you was a reputation.
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[All phenomena] are equally susceptible of being calculated, and all that is necessary, to reduce the whole of nature to laws similar to those which Newton discovered with the aid of the calculus, is to have a sufficient number of observations and a mathematics that is complex enough.
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Me? Robin Goodfellow, a family man? He, not likely, ice-boy. I mean, think of what that would do to my reputation. Glamour shimmered around him, and he gave us a wink. Later, lovebirds. Gimme a heads up when the kid arrives. 'Uncle Puck' will be waiting.
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Mathematics as we know it and as it has come to shape modern science could never have come into being without some disregard for the dangers of the infinite.
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Just as music comes alive in the performance of it, the same is true of mathematics. The symbols on the page have no more to do with mathematics than the notes on a page of music. They simply represent the experience.
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The real question of government versus private enterprise is argued on too philosophical and abstract a basis. Theoretically, planning may be good. But nobody has ever figured out the cause of government stupidity—and until they do (and find the cure), all ideal plans will fall into quicksand.
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Most pleasures, like flowers when gathered die.
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Algebraic geometry seems to have acquired the reputation of being esoteric, exclusive, and very abstract, with adherents who are secretly plotting to take over all the rest of mathematics. In one respect this last point is accurate.
