Nicolas Malebranche Quotes

I am not a mathematician, but I was aware that for centuries, mathematics was considered the queen of the sciences because it claimed certainty. It was grounded on some fundamental certainties - axioms - that led to others.

All science requires mathematics. The knowledge of mathematical things is almost innate in us. This is the easiest of sciences, a fact which is obvious in that no one's brain rejects it; for laymen and people who are utterly illiterate know how to count and reckon.

Society lives by faith, and develops by science.

It cannot be precisely known how any thing is good or bad, till it is precisely known what it is.

There is no philosophy which is not founded upon knowledge of the phenomena, but to get any profit from this knowledge it is absolutely necessary to be a mathematician.

Now being in such grace and favor by reason I learned him some points of geometry and understanding of the art of mathematics with other things, I pleased him so that what I said he would not contrary.

Arithmetic is where the answer is right and everything is nice and you can look out of the window and see the blue sky - or the answer is wrong and you have to start over and try again and see how it comes out this time.

I've always enjoyed mathematics. It is the most precise and concise way of expressing any idea.

Mathematics takes us into the region of absolute necessity, to which not only the actual word, but every possible word, must conform.

For the things of this world cannot be made known without a knowledge of mathematics.

We are servants rather than masters in mathematics.

If I were again beginning my studies, I would follow the advice of Plato and start with mathematics.

I finally reached the conclusion that mathematics was the study I was best fitted to follow, though I did not clearly see in what way I should turn the subject to account.

Whenever you can, count.

I really love numbers.

I am not enough of a mathematician to be able to judge either the well-foundedness or the limits of relativity in physics.

When I was little, I carried a book of times tables around everywhere and always tried to get the best score. I like the fact that you don't need any tools, only your head. I also enjoy rules and, with maths, you are either right or wrong.

C'este donc par l'étude des mathématiques, et seulement par elle, que l'on peut se faire une idée juste et approfondie de ce que c'est qu'une science.

To be sure, mathematics can be extended to any branch of knowledge, including economics, provided the concepts are so clearly defined as to permit accurate symbolic representation. That is only another way of saying that in some branches of discourse it is desirable to know what you are talking about.

Freeman denied the claim that he was a “man of God”, saying that “the question of faith is whatever you actually believe is. We take a lot of what we're talking about in science on faith; we posit a theory, and until it's dis-proven we have faith that it's true. If the mathematics work out, then it's true, until it's proven to be untrue.

While the dogmatist is harmful, the sceptic is useless ...; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or of ignorance. Knowledge is not so precise a concept as is commonly thought. Instead of saying 'I know this', we ought to say 'I more or less know something more or less like this'. ... Knowledge in practical affairs has not the certainty or the precision of arithmetic.

Philosophical knowledge is the knowledge gained by reason from concepts ; mathematical knowledge is the knowledge gained by reason from the construction of concepts.

In every department of physical science there is only so much science, properly so-called, as there is mathematics.

Number, the most excellent of all inventions.

Numbers are the most certain things we have.