Maryam Mirzakhani Quotes

I was performing at a New Jersey high school, and I asked a class of 2,000 students, 'How many of you love mathematics?' and only one hand went up. And that was the hand of the maths teacher!

We have a culture where it’s OK to not know anything about mathematics whereas in Asia, they don’t

Stand firm in your refusal to remain conscious during algebra. In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra.

I never did very well in math - I could never seem to persuade the teacher that I hadn't meant my answers literally.

Being bad at maths shouldn't be something to brag about, and I'm glad people are waking up to this, but there's no reason be embarrassed to look for help when it comes to numeracy.

In high school, a teacher once suggested that I be a math major in college. I thought, 'Me? You've got to be joking!' I mean, in junior high, I used to come home and cry because I was so afraid of my math homework. Seriously, I was terrified of math.

I noticed there were so many people, especially women, who would come up to me having recognized me from TV and say, 'I heard you were a math person, why math? Oh my gosh, I could never do math!' I could just see their self-esteem crumbling; I thought that was silly, so I wanted to make math more friendly and accessible.

I would hope that maybe math teachers could use 'Prime Baby' as a way of establishing an emotional connection between students and numbers.

It's such a diversion to be constantly thinking of better ways I can teach people math that my hunger is for that really, for new ways of translating the beauty of it.

From the ages of five to twelve, I attended the Saint Laurence O'Toole elementary school in Lawrence, a city next to Methuen, and was taught by sisters of the Catholic order of Notre Dame de Namour. I enjoyed all my subjects there. I do not remember ever learning any science, except for mathematics.

I still remember asking my high school guidance teacher for permission to take a second year of algebra instead of a fifth year of Latin. She looked down her nose at me and sneered, 'What lady would take mathematics instead of Latin?'

You know, I'm not terribly fast at my times tables, because that's not what I think mathematics is about.

At the age of 12, I developed an intense interest in mathematics. On exposure to algebra, I was fascinated by simultaneous equations and read ahead of the class to the end of the book.

I was fortunate to find an extraordinary mathematics and applied mathematics program in Toronto.

I had done quite a bit of research about math education when I spoke before Congress in 2000 about the importance of women in mathematics. The session of Congress was all about raising more scholarships for girls in college. I told them I felt that it's too late by college.

There should be no such thing as boring mathematics.

I have written a book called 'In the Wonderland of Numbers.' It's about a young girl, Neha, who is very poor in mathematics, but in a series of illusory experiences, she becomes a great mathematician.

I have been running maths clubs for children completely free. In my building in Bangalore, I conduct maths clubs for several months, and every child who attended the club was poor in mathematics and is now showing brilliant results.

And they're also very good at math, these super boogers, and so they teach Billy the ways of mathematics.

Fifty percent of our high schools do not even offer calculus—no one in those schools can take calculus.

Had I to do it again, I would have been a math major, probably a double major, and did take a lot of math classes, but I would have taken a lot more.

My older brother was the person who got me interested in science in general. He used to tell me what he learned in school. My first memory of mathematics is probably the time that he told me about the problem of adding numbers from 1 to 100.

The toughest thing for a homeschooler is the same as for a school teacher - shifting from a weak tea vision of math being grinding calculations to a rich frothy mug of math as an active way of thinking.

In no other branch of mathematics is it so easy for experts to blunder as in probability theory.

I worry about Las Vegas schools. I hear in math, they only teach them to count to 21.