Hermann Weyl Quotes

Besides language and music, it [mathematics] is one of the primary manifestations of the free creative power of the human mind, and it is the universal organ for world understanding through theoretical construction. Mathematics must therefore remain an essential element of the knowledge and abilities which we have to teach, of the culture we have to transmit, to the next generation.

Mathematics is not the rigid and rigidity-producing schema that the layman thinks it is; rather, in it we find ourselves at that meeting point of constraint and freedom that is the very essence of human nature.

Language is, without a doubt, the most momentous and at the same time the most mysterious product of the human mind.

Mathematics expresses values that reflect the cosmos, including orderliness, balance, harmony, logic, and abstract beauty.

Mathematics as an expression of the human mind reflects the active will, the contemplative reason, and the desire for aesthetic perfection.

Samskrit language, as has been universally recognized by those competent to form a judgment, is one of the most magnificent, the most perfect, the most prominent and wonderfully sufficient literary instrument developed by the human mind.

Fraulein Noether was the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began.

The book of nature is written in the language of mathematics.

Nothing feeds the center of being so much as creative work. The curtain of mechanization has come down between the mind and the hand.

A woman who is self-reliant, positive, optimistic, and undertakes her work with the assurance of success magnetizes her condition. She draws to herself the creative powers of the universe.

Everyone is an artist. Everyone is creative in their own way and that that creativity is a great thing. It's a human thing and it needs to be nurtured and it can help us go down life's path and help us to become deeper, richer, more satisfied human beings.

The arithmetical symbols are written diagrams and the geometrical figures are graphic formulas.

Music is what mathematics does on a Saturday night.

When we open our minds to the unlimited creative power, we will call forth abundance and see and experience a whole new world.

Mathematics may, like poetry or music, "promote and sustain a lofty habit of mind."

The true spirit of delight...is to be found in mathematics as surely as in poetry.

Who can confidently say what ignites a certain combination of words, causing them to explode in the mind? Who knows why certain notes in music are capable of stirring the listener deeply, though the same notes slightly rearranged are impotent? These are high mysteries, and this chapter is a mystery story, thinly disguised.

The creative principle [of science] resides in mathematics.

Mathematics is concerned only with the enumeration and comparison of relations.

Science is not a heartless pursuit of objective information; it is a creative human activity.

The pure mathematician, like the musician, is a free creator of his world of ordered beauty.

What is algebra exactly; is it those three-cornered things?

Just as the eye was made to see colours, and the ear to hear sounds, so the human mind was made to understand, not whatever you please, but quantity.

Building becomes architecture only when the mind of man consciously takes it and tries with all his resources to make it beautiful, to put concordance, sympathy with nature, and all that into it. Then you have architecture.

By the creative act, we are able to reach beyond our own death.