Carl Friedrich Gauss Quotes

A proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It's a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have a good proof, it's because it's proven.

Argument is conclusive, but it does not remove doubt, so that the mind may rest in the sure knowledge of the truth, unless it finds it by the method of experiment.

Faith is an island in the setting sun, But proof is the bottom line for everyone.

A proof tells us where to concentrate our doubts.

Logic is the technique by which we add conviction to truth.

Persuasion is clearly a sort of demonstration, since we are most fully persuaded when we consider a thing to have been demonstrated.

When a thing is true, there is no need to use any arguments to substantiate it.

A thing that nobody believes cannot be proved too often.

Even things that are true can be proved.

...and when is enough proof enough?

A hundred suspicions don't make a proof.

The truth does not need to be defended.

Proof is an idol before whom the pure mathematician tortures himself.

The word 'belief' is a difficult thing for me. I don't believe. I must have a reason for a certain hypothesis. Either I know a thing, and then I know it - I don't need to believe it.

Rhetoric is cheap, evidence comes more dearly.

We must never assume that which is incapable of proof.

Proof tells us where to concentrate our doubts.

In my opinion, it helps enormously to know why something is true, rather than being told it is true, for why should you believe me? Never believe anything on the authority of a single person but seek confirmation — and reason is the best confirmation

We cannot infer that because sciences of things divine and human are full of controversies and quarrels, therefore their whole subject-matter is uncertain ; for there have been many persons so enamoured of contradiction, as to turn into ridicule geometrical axioms.

In practical life we are compelled to follow what is most probable ; in speculative thought we are compelled to follow truth. A man would perish of hunger and thirst, if he refused to eat or drink, till he had obtained positive proof that food and drink would be good for him. But in philosophic reflection this is not so. On the contrary, we must take care not to admit as true anything, which is only probable. For when one falsity has been let in, infinite others follow.

Whenever I write something, I always want to make sure that what I write is defensible.

Doubt, indulged and cherished, is in danger of becoming denial; but if honest, and bent on thorough investigation, it may soon lead to full establishment of the truth.

I believe only in the mathematics.

Irrefragability, thy name is mathematics.

It's not what you know, it's what you can prove.