Math Education Quotations






 * “Nothing gives an author so much pleasure as to find his works respectfully quoted by other learned authors.” (Benjamin Franklin; one of the founding fathers of the United States; 1706-1790.)

For many years I have been collecting math-related quotations that resonate with my views. Each conveys a message that seems important to me and I often make use of the quotations in my writing. I hope that you will enjoy this IAE-pedia collection as much as I do.

Also see my general IAE-pedia list of collected quotations at http://iae-pedia.org/Quotations_Collected_by_David_Moursund.

If you have suggested quotations or other online sources for possible additions to this list, please send them to me via email at moursund@uoregon.edu.

Introduction

 * “Less is more.” (Robert Browning; English poet and playwright, in a 1855 poem "Andrea del Sarto"; 1812-1889).

Mathematics and the teaching of mathematics have a very long history. I have captured a little bit of this history in these quotations from math researchers, math educators, math users, and others.

Math is a language. The language of math can often be used to precisely and succinctly represent complex ideas. Short quotations may then represent these complex ideas in just a few words.

Notice the “Less is more” quotation above. A short quotation, such as the one-liners that we frequently see, can be thought of as a very short article or story. Here is a version of this idea that comes from a famous mathematician, Blaise Pascal:


 * “I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.” (Blaise Pascal; French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher; 1623-1662.)

The quotations included here have been divided into four categories: What is Mathematics?, Math Education, Math Humor, and General Education. The general education quotations are ones that I believe to be particularly relevant to math teachers and students. This IAE-pedia document ends with some of the online sources I used in developing my collections.

Suggestions to Math Teachers

 * Each week, post a different math-related quote on your bulletin board. Discuss it with your students.


 * Once in a while, have a contest among your students to find the “best math-related quote.”


 * Post a quote and challenge students to find who said it, and then to learn more about that person.


 * Ask students to bring in their own favorite math-related quotes, being sure to include some information about the author of the quote and a personal comment about why they feel the quote is important.

Quotations about “What is Mathematics?”

 * “Math is just logic with numbers attached.” (Marilyn vos Savant; American magazine columnist, author, lecturer, and playwright who rose to fame through her listing in the Guinness Book of World Records under "Highest IQ"; 1946-.)

This section contains a few often-quoted statements that help to provide insight into the question of “What is mathematics?” Math is a broad, deep, and very old discipline. Many of these quotes help to capture the essence of math in a few short sentences.

“Biologists defer only to chemists, chemists defer only to physicists, physicists defer only to mathematicians, and mathematicians defer only to God, although you'll be hard pressed to find one so humble.” Anonymous quote found at http://www.actuarialoutpost.com/actuarial_discussion_forum/showthread.php?t=5890.

“Small minds discuss persons. Average minds discuss events. Great minds discuss ideas. Really great minds discuss mathematics.” (Anonymous.)

“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.” (John Adams; American statesman and diplomat, 2nd President of the United States; 1735-826.)

"The so-called Pythagoreans, who were the first to take up mathematics, not only advanced this subject, but, saturated with it, they fancied that the principles of mathematics were the principles of all things.” (Aristotle; Greek philosopher; 384 BC-322 BC.)

“Knowledge is power.” (Francis Bacon; English philosopher, statesman, scientist, author, and father of the scientific method; 1561-1626.)

“Mathematics is the gate and key of the sciences... Neglect of mathematics works injury to all knowledge, since one who is ignorant of it cannot know the other sciences or the things of this world.” (Roger Bacon; English philosopher and naturalist; 1214-1294.)

“No human investigation can claim to be scientific if it doesn't pass the test of mathematical proof.” (Leonardo da Vinci; Italian scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician, and writer, quoted in Concepts of Mathematical Modeling by Walter J. Meyer; 1452-1519.)

“Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems.” (René Descartes; French philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and writer; 1596-1650.)

“Mathematics is a more powerful instrument of knowledge than any other that has been bequeathed to us by human agency.” (René Descartes; French philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and writer; 1596-1650.)

“The most powerful single idea in mathematics is the notion of a variable.” (Alexander Keewatin Dewdney; Canadian computer scientist, mathematician, and philosopher; 1941-.)

“We only think when confronted with a problem.” (John Dewey; American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer; 1859-1952.)

“One of the most important concepts in all of mathematics is that of function.” (Thomas P. Dick and C.M. Patton; from Calculus, PWS, 1991.)

“Computation is the principle; the computer is the tool.” (Edsger Dijkstra; Dutch computer scientist; 1930-2002.)

“Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.” (Edsger Dijkstra; Dutch computer scientist; 1930-2002.)

“In their capacity as a tool, computers will be but a ripple on the surface of our culture. In their capacity as intellectual challenge, they are without precedent in the cultural history of mankind.” (Edsger Dijkstra; Dutch computer scientist; 1930-002.)

“How can it be that mathematics, a product of human thought independent of experience, is so admirably adapted to the objects of reality?” (Albert Einstein; German-born theoretical physicist and 1921 Nobel Prize winner; 1879-1955.)

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” (Albert Einstein; German-born theoretical physicist and 1921 Nobel Prize winner; 1879-1955.)

“Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.” (Albert Einstein; German-born theoretical physicist and 1921 Nobel Prize winner; 1879-1955.)

“What science can there be more noble, more excellent, more useful for men, more admirably high and demonstrative, than this of mathematics?” (Benjamin Franklin; American author, inventor, printer, statesman, and one of the founding fathers; 1706-1790.)

“Nature's great book is written in mathematics.” (Galileo Galilei; Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher; 1564-1642.)

“Unfortunately what is little recognized is that the most worthwhile scientific books are those in which the author clearly indicates what he does not know; for an author most hurts his readers by concealing his difficulties.” (Evariste Galois; French mathematician; 1811-1832.)

“Mathematics is the queen of sciences and number theory is the queen of mathematics. She often condescends to render service to astronomy and other natural sciences, but in all relations she is entitled to the first rank.” (Carl Friedrich Gauss; German mathematician, physicist, and prodigy; 1777-1855.)

"It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment. When I have clarified and exhausted a subject, then I turn away from it, in order to go into darkness again; the never-satisfied man is so strange if he has completed a structure, then it is not in order to dwell in it peacefully, but in order to begin another. I imagine the world conqueror must feel thus, who, after one kingdom is scarcely conquered, stretches out his arms for others." (Carl Friedrich Gauss; German mathematician, physicist, and prodigy; 1777-1855.)

“A theory appears to be beautiful or elegant (or simple, if you prefer) when it can be expressed concisely in terms of mathematics we already have.” (Murray Gell-Mann; American Nobel Prize winning physicist, in a 16-minute TED video, Beauty and Truth in Physics, March 2007; 1929-.)

“In most sciences one generation tears down what another has built and what one has established another undoes. In mathematics alone each generations adds a new story to the old structure.” (Hermann Hankel; German mathematician; 1839-1873.)

“A mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas.” (Godfrey H. Hardy; English mathematician known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis; 1877-1947.)

“Archimedes will be remembered when Aeschylus is forgotten, because languages die and mathematical ideas do not. ‘Immortality’ may be a silly word, but probably a mathematician has the best chance of whatever.” (Godfrey H. Hardy; British mathematician; 1877-1947.)

“Beauty is the first test: there is no place in the world for ugly mathematics.” (Godfrey H. Hardy; English mathematician known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis; 1877-1947.)

“The mathematician’s patterns, like the painter’s or the poet’s, must be beautiful.” (Godfrey H. Hardy; English mathematician known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis; 1877-1947.)

“It is an error to believe that rigor in a proof is an enemy of simplicity. On the contrary we find it confirmed by numerous examples that the rigorous method is, at the same time, the simpler and the more easily comprehended. The very effort for rigor forces us to find the simpler methods of proof.” (David Hilbert; German mathematician; 1862-1943.)

“Mathematics is a game played according to certain simple rules with meaningless marks on paper." (David Hilbert; German mathematician; 1862-1943.)

“Mathematics knows no races or geographic boundaries; for mathematics, the cultural world is one country.” (David Hilbert; German mathematician; 1862-1943.)

“The science of mathematics presents the most brilliant example of how pure reason may successfully enlarge its domain without the aid of experience.” (Immanuel Kant; German philosopher; 1724-1804).

"When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind." (Lord Kelvin, Sir William Thomson; Irish and British mathematical physicist and engineer; 1824-1907.)

“A proof tells us where to concentrate our doubts.” (Morris Kline; American mathematician and a writer on the history, philosophy, and teaching of mathematics; 1908-1992.)

“Logic is the art of going wrong with confidence.” (Morris Kline; American mathematician and a writer on the history, philosophy, and teaching of mathematics; 1908-1992.)

“Statistics: the mathematical theory of ignorance.” (Morris Kline; American mathematician and a writer on the history, philosophy, and teaching of mathematics; 1908-1992.)

“A mathematical formula should never be ‘owned’ by anybody! Mathematics belong to God.” (Donald Knuth; American computer scientist; 1938-.)

“Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do.” (Donald Knuth; American computer scientist; 1938-.)

“It is impossible to be a mathematician without being a poet in soul.” (Sophia Kovalevskaya; the first major Russian woman mathematician, and also the first woman appointed to a full professorship in Europe in 1889; 1850-1891.)

“God created the natural numbers. All the rest is the work of man.” (Leopold Kronecker; German mathematician and logician; 1823-1891.)

“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” (Isaac Newton; English mathematician and physicist, in letter to Robert Hooke, February 5, 1675; 1642 -1727.)

“The study of mathematics cannot be replaced by any other activity that will train and develop man's purely logical faculties to the same level of rationality.” (Cletus O. Oakley; American mathematician; 1899-1990.)

“To speak freely of mathematics...I call it the most beautiful profession in the world.” (Blaise Pascal; French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher; 1623-1662.)

“...the feeling of mathematical beauty, of the harmony of numbers and of forms, of geometric elegance. It is a genuinely aesthetic feeling, which all mathematicians know.” (Henri Poincare; French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher; 1854-1912.)

“The mathematician does not study pure mathematics because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it and he delights in it because it is beautiful.” Henri Poincare; French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher; 1854-1912.)

“A mathematician who can only generalize is like a monkey who can only climb up a tree, and a mathematician who can only specialize is like a monkey who can only climb down a tree. In fact neither the up monkey nor the down monkey is a viable creature. A real monkey must find food and escape his enemies and so must be able to incessantly climb up and down. A real mathematician must be able to generalize and specialize.” (George Polya; Hungarian math researcher and educator; 1887-1985.)

“An idea which can be used once is a trick. If it can be used more than once it becomes a method.” (George Polya; Hungarian mathematician, researcher, and educator; 1887–1985; and Gabor Szego; Hungarian mathematician; 1895-1985.)

“I am too good for philosophy and not good enough for physics. Mathematics is in between.” (George Polya; Hungarian math researcher and educator; 1887-1985.)

“Mathematics consists of content and know-how. What is know-how in mathematics? The ability to solve problems.” (George Polya; Hungarian math researcher and educator; 1887-1985.)

“Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth but supreme beauty—a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture.” (Bertrand Russell; English philosopher, historian, logician, mathematician, and pacifist; 1872-1970.)

“Mathematics takes us still further from what is human, into the region of absolute necessity, to which not only the actual world, but every possible world, must conform.” (Bertrand Russell; English philosopher, historian, logician, mathematician, and pacifist; 1872-1970.)

“Math is just logic with numbers attached.” (Marilyn vos Savant; American magazine columnist, author, lecturer, and playwright who rose to fame through her listing in the Guinness Book of World Records under "Highest IQ"; 1946-.)

“It is the logical structure of algebra, not the solutions of its equations, that made algebra a central component of classical education.” (Lynn Arthur Steen; American mathematician and math educator; 1941-.)

“Mathematics, in the common lay view, is a static discipline based on formulas…. But outside the public view, mathematics continues to grow at a rapid rate...the guide to this growth is not calculation and formulas, but an open-ended search for pattern.” (Lynn Arthur Steen; American mathematician and math educator; 1941-.)

“What humans do with the language of mathematics is to describe patterns.” (Lynn Arthur Steen; American mathematician and math educator; 1941-.)

“Algebra is the language of mathematics, which itself is the language of the information age. The language of algebra is the Rosetta Stone of nature and the passport to advanced mathematics.” (Zalman Usiskin; American math educator.)

“Numbers constitute the only universal language.” (Nathanael West; American novelist; 1903-1940.)

“Algebra is the intellectual instrument which has been created for rendering clear the quantitative aspects of the world.” (Alfred North Whitehead; English mathematician and philosopher who wrote on algebra, logic, foundations of mathematics, philosophy of science, physics, metaphysics, and education, and co-authored the epochal Principia Mathematica with Bertrand Russell; 1861-1947.)

Quotations About Math Education
“The second most important job in the world, second only to being a good parent, is being a good teacher.” (S.G. Ellis.)

Many students find that learning math is a considerable challenge, and many teachers of math find that helping students learn math is a considerable challenge. The quotations in this section highlight these challenges.

“I advise my students to listen carefully the moment they decide to take no more mathematics courses. They might be able to hear the sound of closing doors.” (James Caballero; American mathematician.)

“Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand." (Confucius; Chinese thinker and social philosopher, whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese and Vietnamese thought and life; 551 BC-479 BC.)

"Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it." (René Descartes, French philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and writer; 1596-1650.)

“Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems.” (René Descartes, French philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and writer; 1596-1650.)

“Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves.” (Ernest Dimnet; French priest, writer and lecturer, author of The Art of Thinking, a popular book on thinking and reasoning during the 1930s; 1866-1954.)

“A great teacher makes hard things easy.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson; American essayist, philosopher, and poet; 1803-1882.)

"The most important single element in problem solving is the individual working on the problem. The secret of real success is the confidence and desire to succeed. One must try and try again, vary the methods and procedures, have brains and good luck. There are no infallible rules for solving problems." (John N. Fujii; American mathematician and math educator; author or co-author of a large number of books.)

“The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.” (Anatole France; French novelist and poet; 1844-1924.)

“I am not a teacher…I am an awakener.” (Robert Frost; American poet; 1874-1963.)

“An individual understands a concept, skill, theory, or domain of knowledge to the extent that he or she can apply it appropriately in a new situation.” (Howard Gardner; American psychologist and educator; 1943-.)

“As we go to higher and higher energies (smaller and smaller distances), the next onion skin (manifestation of the basic law) resembles the previous one to some extent. The result is that newly encountered phenomena are described rather simply, and therefore elegantly, in terms of mathematics close to what was already developed for phenomena studied earlier.” (Murray Gell-Mann; American Nobel Prize winning physicist, in a 16-minute TED video, Beauty and Truth in Physics, March 2007; 1929-.)

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; German writer and polymath; 1749-1832.)

“The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics. That tenet is the foundation of the do-it-yourself, Socratic, or Texas method....” (Paul Halmos; American mathematician; 1916-2006.) Quoting from the Wikipedia:


 * In the American Scientist 56(4): 375-389, Halmos argued that mathematics is a creative art, and that mathematicians should be seen as artists, not number crunchers. He discussed the division of the field into mathology and mathophysics, further arguing that mathematicians and painters think and work in related ways.


 * Halmos's 1985 “automathography” I Want to Be a Mathematician is an outstanding account of what it was like to be an academic mathematician in 20th century America. He called the book “automathography” rather than “autobiography,” because its focus is almost entirely on his life as a mathematician, not his personal life. The book contains the following quote on Halmos' view of what doing mathematics means, and is a favorite of many teachers of mathematics:


 * “Don't just read it; fight it! Ask your own questions, look for your own examples, discover your own proofs. Is the hypothesis necessary? Is the converse true? What happens in the classical special case? What about the degenerate cases? Where does the proof use the hypothesis?”

“One of the big misapprehensions about mathematics that we perpetrate in our classrooms is that the teacher always seems to know the answer to any problem that is discussed. This gives students the idea that there is a book somewhere with all the right answers to all of the interesting questions, and that teachers know those answers. And if one could get hold of the book, one would have everything settled. That's so unlike the true nature of mathematics.” (Leon Albert Henkin; American mathematician and social activist for women’s equality in higher education; 1921-2006.)

“The value of a problem is not so much coming up with the answer as in the ideas and attempted ideas it forces on the would be solver.” (Israel Nathan Herstein; Canadian-American mathematician; 1923-1988.)

“Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.” (Samuel Johnson; British author; 1709-1784.)

"Now I feel as if I should succeed in doing something in mathematics, although I cannot see why it is so very important…. The knowledge doesn't make life any sweeter or happier, does it?” (Helen Keller; American author and lecturer, the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree; 1880-1968.)

“It is unworthy of excellent men to lose hours like slaves in the labor of calculation which could be safely relegated to anyone else if machines were used.” (Gottfried Leibniz; German philosopher and mathematician; 1646-1716.)

“Learning to solve problems is the principal reason for studying mathematics.” (Position Paper on Basic Mathematical Skills. National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics, 1977.)

“One striking fact is that the complex world of education—unlike defense, health care, or industrial production—does not rest on a strong research base. In no other field are personal experience and ideology so frequently relied on to make policy choices, and in no other field is the research base so inadequate and little used.” (Improving Student Learning. National Research Council, 1999.)

“Nothing could be more absurd than an experiment in which computers are placed in a classroom where nothing else is changed.” (Seymour Papert; South African/American mathematician, computer scientist, and educator; 1928-2016.)

“Mathematics is like checkers in being suitable for the young, not too difficult, amusing, and without peril to the state.” (Plato; Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world; 428/427 BC-348/347 BC.)

“The point is to make math intrinsically interesting to children. We should not have to sell mathematics by pointing to its usefulness in other subject areas, which, of course, is real. Love for math will not come about by trying to convince a child that it happens to be a handy tool for life; it grows when a good teacher can draw out a child's curiosity about how numbers and mathematical principles work. The very high percentage of adults who are unashamed to say that they are bad with math is a good indication of how maligned the subject is and how very little we were taught in school about the enchantment of numbers.” (Alfred S. Posamentier; American math educator; 1942-.)

“We cannot hope that many children will learn mathematics unless we find a way to share our enjoyment and show them its beauty as well as its utility.” (Mary Beth Ruskai; American mathematics and quantum physics researcher; 1944-.)

“At the age of eleven, I began Euclid, with my brother as my tutor. This was one of the great events of my life, as dazzling as first love. I had not imagined there was anything so delicious in the world.” (Bertrand Russell; British philosopher, historian, logician, mathematician, and pacifist; 1872-1970.)

“The time may not be very remote when it will be understood that for complete initiation as an efficient citizen of one of the great complex world states that are now developing, it is as necessary to be able to compute, to think in averages and maxima and minima, as it is now to be able to read and to write.” (H.G. Wells; English science fiction author; 1866-1946.)

“Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them.” (Alfred North Whitehead; English mathematician and philosopher who wrote on algebra, logic, foundations of mathematics, philosophy of science, physics, metaphysics, and education, and co-authored the epochal Principia Mathematica with Bertrand Russell; 1861-1947.)

"The natural man inevitably rebels against mathematics, a mild form of torture that could only be learned by painful processes of drill." (Woodrow Wilson; 28th President of the United States; 1856-1924.)

“It is clear that the chief end of mathematical study must be to make the students think.” (John Wesley Young; American mathematician; 1879-1932.)

Quotations About Math Humor

 * "The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." (E.E. Cummings; American poet; 1894–1964.)

Each academic discipline has “insider” jokes that might not seem funny to people who have only a modest understanding of the discipline. There are many such math-related “jokes.” Certainly both beauty and math humor are in the eyes of the beholders.

Humor also can be used as a very effective teaching tool. Mary Kay Morrison is a leader in the field of uses of humor in education. Quoting from her book Using Humor to Maximize Learning: The Links between Positive Emotions and Education:

What is humor exactly? How do you get a sense of humor? Once you find yours, how do you use it to maximize learning? If it is so important, why is it rarely mentioned in teacher preparation without some clues for finding and using it?

The purpose of this book is to affirm, sustain and encourage educators in the practice of humor not only as a personal tool to optimize a healthy life style, but to maximize the benefits of humor in education. These benefits include current research-based data on the use of humor to nurture creativity, to increase the capacity for memory retention, to support an optimal learning environment and to build safe communities that reflect the relational trust necessary for collaborative learning.

Educators value humor. References to the importance of having a sense of humor are liberally sprinkled throughout the school-based literature. It is usually mentioned as a factor to look for when hiring, as well as one of the qualities of effective teachers. High school students will tell you humor is the trait they value most in a teacher. It is without a doubt the one quality that most of us agree is needed in education. However, the study of humor as a practice in education is rare. (Morrison, Mary Kay, 2008. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. Retrieved 2/4/2013 from http://iae-pedia.org/Using_Humor_to_Maximize_Learning.)

This section contains a few examples of math and math education-related humor, enough examples to help you develop a sense of whether this type of humor might interest you and/or your students. The humor in many of them depends on having an understanding of the math or math idea behind the joke. Perhaps they can help you measure your level, and your students’ level, of understanding of math from a math humor point of view

Many of the jokes given here are widely quoted in the literature—often without citation. I spent only a modest amount of time attempting to find citations. In some cases I have included the Web source from which I retrieved the quotation. See the last section, Online Sources for Quotations, for some of Web sites I used. Readers are encouraged to send additional quotations or online sources of Math Humor to me via email at moursund@uoregon.edu.

“A formal manipulator in mathematics often experiences the discomforting feeling that his pencil surpasses him in intelligence.” (Howard W. Eves.)

“Arithmetic is being able to count up to twenty without taking off your shoes.” (Mickey Mouse. Kids Math Games.)

“Calculus has its limits.”

“Decimals have a point.” (OnlineMathLearning.com–Funny Math Quotes.)

“During a company’s recent password audit, it was learned that an employee was using the following password: ‘MickeyMinniePlutoHueyLouieDeweyDonaldGoofySacramento.’ When asked why he had such a long password, the employee rolled his eyes and said: ‘Hey...! By the company's stated rules, a password has to be at least eight characters long and include at least one capital.’” (Jerry Johnson at Math Nexus.)

“Geometry is just plane fun.” (OnlineMathLearning.com–Funny Math Quotes.)

“How many times can you subtract 7 from 83, and what is left afterwards? You can subtract it as many times as you want, and it leaves 76 every time.” (OnlineMathLearning.com–Funny Math Quotes.)

“I heard that parallel lines actually do meet, but they are very discrete.” (Kids Math Games.)

“If there is a 50-50 chance that something can go wrong, then 9 times out of 10 it will.” (Paul Harvey. Kids Math Games.)

“Jungle Math: Tarzan: Why isn't it a good idea to do math in the jungle? Jane: Because if you stop to add four and four you get ate.” (Boy's Life, June 1982.)

“Lil: If two's company, and three's a crowd, what are four and five? Billy: Nine?” (Boy's Life, September 1982.)

“Mathematics is like checkers in being suitable for the young, not too difficult, amusing, and without peril to the state. (Plato. Mathematical Humor.)

“Mathematics is made of 50 percent formulas, 50 percent proofs, and 50 percent imagination.” (Mathematical Humor.)

Moving Answers. Quoted from http://mathnexus.wwu.edu/humor.asp:


 * Someone asked an accountant a mathematician, an engineer, a statistician, and an actuary to answer "2 + 2 = ?"


 * The accountant said "4."


 * The mathematician said "It all depends on your number base."


 * The engineer took out his slide rule and said: "Approximately 3.99."


 * The statistician consulted his tables and said: "I am 95% confident that it lies between 3.95 and 4.05."


 * The actuary said: "What do you want it to add up to?"

“Natural numbers are better for your health.” (Kids Math Games.)

“Now I lay me down to rest.

I pray I pass tomorrow’s test.

If I should die before I wake,

That’s one less test I’ll have to take.”

(B.W., Bellingham, grade 8, 1987.)

"Never question advice from a ninety degree angle. It is always right."

“Old mathematicians never die; they just lose their functions.” (OnlineMathLearning.com–Funny Math Quotes.)

“Plus: What did one math book say to the other math book? Minus: Don't bother me; I've got my own problems.” (Jerry Johnson at Math Nexus.)

“Polar coordinates aren't just arctic fashions.” (OnlineMathLearning.com–Funny Math Quotes.)

“Question: Why did the amoeba flunk the math test? Answer: Because it multiplied by dividing.” (Jerry Johnson at Math Nexus.)

“Question: Why didn’t the Romans find algebra challenging? Answer: Because X was always 10.” (Jerry Johnson at Math Nexus.)

“Question: Why do Computer Scientists and Mathematicians confuse Halloween with Christmas? Answer: Because OCT 31 = DEC 25.” (Jerry Johnson at Math Nexus.) Hint to readers: Think in terms of base 8 and base 10.

“Ralph: Dad, will you do my math for me tonight? Dad: No, son, it wouldn't be right. Ralph: Well, you could try.” (Boy's Life, May 1973.)

“Teacher: Now remember, students, statistics don't lie. For example, if 12 men can build a house in one day, one man can build the same house in 12 days. Do you see what I mean? Billy: Sure. And if one boat can cross the ocean in six days, six boats can cross the same ocean in one day.” (Boy's Life, in the 1980s.)

“The Eternal Search: Son: Pop, how do you find the least common denominator? Dad: Great Scot! Haven't they found that yet?” (H. Larsen, Jokes and Riddles, Row, Peterson, 1956.)

“The highest moments in the life of a mathematician are the first few moments after one has proved the result, but before one finds the mistake.” (Kids Math Games.)

“The lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math.” (It Had to be You: Carpe Datum, from an old late night Seattle show that used to come on before Saturday Night Live.)

“The problems for the exam will be similar to the discussed in the class. Of course, the numbers will be different. But not all of them. Pi will still be 3.14159...” (Mathematical Humor.)


 * “The topologist's child was quite hyper


 * ‘Til she wore a Moebius diaper.


 * The mess on the inside


 * Was thus on the outside


 * And it was easy for someone to wipe her.”


 * (Eleanor Ninestein, "An Evening of Mathematical Poetry," Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal, April 1992.)

“Theorem: All positive integers are interesting.

Proof: Let X = {set of un-interesting positive integers}. Then by the well-ordering principle, set X has a least element, call it y. But, since y is “the least of the un-interesting positive integers,” that makes it quite interesting. Remove y from set X. Now, this process and argument can be repeated until set X is empty, which means all of the positive integers must be interesting.” (Jerry Johnson at Math Nexus.)

“There are three kinds of mathematicians; those who can count and those who can’t.” (OnlineMathLearning.com–Funny Math Quotes.)

“These days, even the most pure and abstract mathematics is in danger to be applied.” (Kids Math Games.)

“Three out of every two people are bad at working with fractions. (Mrs. Barton's 2010 Algebra 1 class.)” (OnlineMathLearning.com–Funny Math Quotes.)

“To raise funds for a scholarship, a mathematician organizes a lottery which offers an unusual prize—an infinite amount of money. Thousands of tickets are sold, with all of the buyers desperate to win this great prize. Eventually, the winning ticket is drawn, and the jubilant owner tries to claim his prize. But, the mathematician explains the mode of payment: "Here’s 1 dollar now. You will get 1/2 dollar next week, 1/3 dollar the week after that, 1/4 dollar after that, etc...." (Jerry Johnson at Math Nexus.)

“Trigonometry is a sine of the times.”

“What did the cube say to the sphere? You certainly do get around.”

“What did the cube say to the sphere? I like the way you just keep rolling along while I just keep slip-sliding along.”

“What did the 2 say to the 4? You’re a perfect square.”

Quotations about Education in General

 * “Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development.” (Kofi Annan; Ghanaian diplomat, seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, winner of 2001 Peace Prize; 1938-.)

Most of the quotations in this section are applicable to teaching and learning in every academic discipline. They have been placed in this IAE-pedia Math Quotations collection because I believe they are especially relevant to math teachers and their students.

“He who dares to teach must never cease to learn.” (Adage, unattributed.)

“Ignorance is merely a condition of lacking knowledge. It is cured by education.” (Adage, unattributed.)

“No one gets rich teaching, but no one lives a richer life.” (Adage, unattributed.)

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink." (Adage, unattributed.)

“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” (Henry B. Adams; American novelist, journalist, and historian; 1883-1918.)

“They know enough who know how to learn.” (Henry B. Adams; American novelist, journalist, and historian; 1883-1918.)

“It takes a whole village to raise a child.” (African proverb.)

“Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development.” (Kofi Annan; Ghanaian diplomat, seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, winner of 2001 Peace Prize; 1938-.)

“Where the needs of the world and your talents cross, there lies your vocation.” (Aristotle; Greek philosopher; 384 BC-322 BC.)

“The purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for him/herself.” (James Baldwin; American novelist, playwright, and civil rights activist; 1924-1987.)

“SAT tests are designed by huge panels of experts in education and psychology who work for years to design tests in which not one single question measures any bit of knowledge that anyone might actually need in the real world. We should applaud kids for getting lower scores.” (Dave Barry; American humor columnist and author; 1947-.)

“It isn't enough just to learn—one must learn how to learn, how to learn without classrooms, without teachers, without textbooks. Learn, in short, how to think and analyze and decide and discover and create.” (Michael Bassis; American educator and author; 1946-.)

“After 40 years of intensive research on school learning in the United States as well as abroad, my major conclusion is: What any person in the world can learn, almost all persons can learn, if provided with the appropriate prior and current conditions of learning.” (Benjamin S. Bloom; American educational psychologist; 1913-1999.)

“Education must be increasingly concerned about the fullest development of all children and youth, and it will be the responsibility of the school to seek learning conditions that enable each individual to reach the highest level of learning possible for her or him.” (Benjamin S. Bloom; American educational psychologist; 1913-1999.) Also see http://chapters.rowmaneducation.com/15/788/1578862434ch1.pdf.

“We need to be much clearer about what we do and do not know so that we don’t continually confuse the two. If I could have one wish for education, it would be the systematic ordering of our basic knowledge in such a way that what is known and true can be acted on, while what is superstition, fad, and myth can be recognized as such and used only when there is nothing else to support us in our frustration and despair.” (Benjamin S. Bloom; American educational psychologist; 1913-1999.)

“When people cannot see the need for what’s being taught, they ignore it, reject it, or fail to assimilate it in any meaningful way. Conversely, when they have a need, then, if the resources for learning are available, people learn effectively and quickly.” (John Seely Brown, researcher in business innovation, and Paul Duguid, multidisciplinary researcher; from The Social Life of Bees, Harvard Business School Press, 2000.)

“In short, learning is the process by which novices become experts.” (John T. Bruer; American psychologists and cognitive neuroscientist; from Schools for Thought: A Science of Learning in the Classroom, MIT Press, 1993.)

“Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.” (Gautama Buddha; Indian spiritual leader, founder of Buddhism; circa 563 BC–483 BC.)

“Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.” (George Washington Carver; American freed slave, scientist, botanist, inventor, and educator; 1864-1943.)

“A single conversation across the table with a wise man is worth a month's study of books.” (Chinese proverb.)

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” (Chinese proverb.)

“Learning without thinking is labor lost; thinking without learning is dangerous.” (Chinese proverb.)

“One good teacher outweighs a ton of books.” (Chinese proverb.)

“Any teacher that can be replaced by technology—should be.” (Arthur C. Clarke; British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist; 1917-2008.)

“Before you become too entranced with gorgeous gadgets and mesmerizing video displays, let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. Each grows out of the other, and we need them all.” (Arthur C. Clarke; British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist; 1917-2008.)

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” (Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain; American author and humorist; 1835–-910. See additional Mark Twain quotations at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mark_twain.html.)

“To be good is noble, but to teach others how to be good is nobler, and less trouble.” (Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain; American author and humorist; 1835-1910. See additional Mark Twain quotations at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mark_twain.html.)

“Imagine a school with children that can read or write, but with teachers who cannot, and you have a metaphor of the Information Age in which we live.” (Peter Cochrane; United Kingdom engineer, technologist, and entrepreneur; 1950-.)

“Learning without thought is labor lost.” (Confucius; Chinese thinker and social philosopher, whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese and Vietnamese thought and life; 551 BC-479 BC.)

“Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand.” (Confucius; Chinese thinker and social philosopher, whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese and Vietnamese thought and life; 551 BC-479 BC.)

“Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.” (Leonardo da Vinci; Italian Renaissance scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician, and writer, quoted in Concepts of Mathematical Modeling by Walter J. Meyer; 1452-1519.)

“The most dangerous experiment we can conduct with our children is to keep schooling the same at a time when every other aspect of our society is dramatically changing.” (Chris Dede; American computer educator and futurist; from written statement to the PCAST panel, 1997.)

“You don't just learn knowledge; you have to create it. Get in the driver's seat, don't just be a passenger. You have to contribute to it or you don't understand it.” (W. Edwards Deming; American international business consultant and statistician; 1900-1993.)

“Any genuine teaching will result, if successful, in someone's knowing how to bring about a better condition of things than existed earlier.” (John Dewey; American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer; 1859-1952.)

“Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself.” (John Dewey; American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer; 1859-1952.)

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” (John Dewey; American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer; 1859-1952.)

“Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children.” (Walt Disney; American film producer, animator, entertainer, international icon; 1901-1966.)

“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” (Frederick Douglass; American freed slave who became an ardent abolitionist, orator, and writer; 1818 -1895.)

“Historically, the elementary school has been totally labor-intensive. Tomorrow's elementary school will be heavily capital-intensive.” (Peter Drucker; Austrian writer and management consultant, and self-described social ecologist; 1909-2005.)

“When a subject becomes totally obsolete we make it a required course.” (Peter Drucker; Austrian writer and management consultant, and self-described social ecologist; 1909-2005.)

“Books will soon be obsolete in the schools.... Scholars will soon be able to instruct through the eye. It is possible to touch every branch of human knowledge with the motion picture.” (Thomas A. Edison; American inventor and businessman; quotation from 1913; 1847-1931.)

“Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration.” (Thomas Alva Edison; American inventor and businessman; 1847-1931.)

“I believe that the motion picture is destined to revolutionize our educational system and that in a few years it will supplant largely, if not entirely, the use of textbooks.” (Thomas Alva Edison; American inventor and businessman; quotation from 1922; 1847-1931.)

“I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” (Albert Einstein; German-born theoretical physicist and 1921 Nobel Prize winner; 1879-1955.)

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." (Albert Einstein; German-born theoretical physicist and 1921 Nobel Prize winner; 1879-1955.)

“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.” (Albert Einstein; German-born theoretical physicist and 1921 Nobel Prize winner; 1879-1955.)

“The aim [of education] must be the training of independently acting and thinking individuals who, however, can see in the service to the community their highest life achievement.” (Albert Einstein; German-born theoretical physicist and 1921 Nobel Prize winner; 1879-1955.)

“The value of an education...is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks.” (Albert Einstein; German-born theoretical physicist and 1921 Nobel Prize winner; 1879-1955.)

“Wisdom is not a product of schooling, but of the life- long attempt to acquire it.” (Albert Einstein; German-born theoretical physicist and 1921 Nobel Prize winner; 1879-1955.)

“The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.” (Anatole France; French novelist and poet; 1844-1924.)

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” (Mahatma Gandhi; Indian spiritual and political leader of India and the Indian independence movement; 1869-1948.)

“An individual understands a concept, skill, theory, or domain of knowledge to the extent that he or she can apply it appropriately in a new situation.” (Howard Gardner; American psychologist and educator; 1943-.)

“Pedagogy is what our species does best. We are teachers, and we want to teach while sitting around the campfire rather than being continually present during our offspring's trial-and-error experiences.” (Michael S. Gazzaniga; American professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he heads the new SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind; 1939-.)

"The fact is that there are few more "popular" subjects than mathematics. Most people have some appreciation of mathematics, just as most people can enjoy a pleasant tune; and there are probably more people really interested in mathematics than in music. Appearances may suggest the contrary, but there are easy explanations. Music can be used to stimulate mass emotion, while mathematics cannot; and musical incapacity is recognized (no doubt rightly) as mildly discreditable, whereas most people are so frightened of the name of mathematics that they are ready, quite unaffectedly, to exaggerate their own mathematical stupidity." (Godfrey H. Hardy; British mathematician; 1877-1947.)

"The valid test of a student is his ability to ask the right questions. I would suggest that we evolve a new type of examination paper, one in which the answers are given–the questions to be supplied by the student." (Abraham Joshua Heschel; Polish-American scholar, Jewish philosopher and rabbi; 1907-1972.)

“In times of change, the learner will inherit the earth while the learned are beautifully equipped for a world that no longer exists.” (Eric Hoffer; American social writer and philosopher; 1902-1983.)

“Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.” (Thomas H. Huxley; English writer; 1825-1895.)

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” (Thomas H. Huxley; English writer; 1825-1895.)

“Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then, by God, do something. Don't just stand there, make it happen.” (Lee Iacocca, American industrialist; 1924-.)

“In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could have.” (Lee Iacocca, American industrialist; 1924-.)

“At every of these schools shall be taught reading, writing, and common arithmetick, and the books which shall be used therein for instructing the children to read shall be such as will at the same time make them acquainted with Graecian, Roman, English, and American history. At these schools all the free children, male and female, resident within the respective hundred, shall be intitled to receive tuition gratis, for the term of three years, and as much longer, at their private expence, as their parents, guardians or friends, shall think proper.” This is quoted from a bill brought before the Virginia Legislature in 1778 by Thomas Jefferson. The legislation was titled A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge. It was not passed. (Thomas Jefferson; 3rd President of the United States; 1743-1826.)

“Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.” (Samuel Johnson; British author; 1709-1784.)

“One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.” (Carl Gustav Jung; Swiss psychotherapist; 1875-1961.)

"A general 'law of least effort' applies to cognitive as well as physical exertion. The law asserts that If there are several ways of achieving the same goal, people will eventually gravitate to the least demanding course of action. In the economy of action, effort is a cost, and the acquisition of skill is driven by the balance of benefits and costs. Laziness is built deep into our nature." (Daniel Kahneman; Israeli-American psychologist and winner of the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences; 1934-.)

"The Moving Finger writes, and, having writ, Moves on: Nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it." (Omar Khayyam; Persian [now Iran] mathematician and poet; 1048-1131.) (Note: translation by Edward FitzGerald, 1889.)

“In the final analysis it is not what you do for your children but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings.” (Ann Landers was a pen name created by Chicago Sun-Times advice columnist Ruth Crowley in 1943 and taken over by Eppie Lederer in 1955. For 56 years, the Ask Ann Landers syndicated advice column was a regular feature in many newspapers across North America. Due to this popularity, 'Ann Landers', though fictional, became something of a national institution and cultural icon.)

“Children are the message we send to the future.” (Abraham Lincoln; 16th President of the United States; 1809–1865.) Note: Also attributed to others, including Marshall McLuhan, Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar; 1911-1980.

“If one cannot state a matter clearly enough so that even an intelligent twelve-year-old can understand it, one should remain within the cloistered walls of the university and laboratory until one gets a better grasp of one’s subject matter.” (Margaret Mead; American cultural anthropologist; 1901-1978.)

“And still I am learning!” (Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti, known as Michelangelo; Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer; 1475-1564.)

“We discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being. It is not acquired by listening to words, but in virtue of experiences in which the child acts on his environment. The teacher's task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange a series of motives for cultural activity in a special environment made for the child.” (Maria Montessori; Italian physician, educator, philosopher, humanitarian, and devout Catholic; 1870-1952.)

“One striking fact is that the complex world of education—unlike defense, health care, or industrial production—does not rest on a strong research base. In no other field are personal experience and ideology so frequently relied on to make policy choices, and in no other field is the research base so inadequate and little used.” (Improving Student Learning. National Research Council, 1999.)

“Nothing could be more absurd than an experiment in which computers are placed in a classroom where nothing else is changed.” (Seymour Papert; South African/American mathematician, computer scientist, and educator; 1928-2016.)

“The reason most kids don't like school is not that the work is too hard, but that it is utterly boring.” (Seymour Papert; South African/American mathematician, computer scientist, and educator; 1928-2016.)

“There won’t be schools in the future…. I think the computer will blow up the school. That is, the school defined as something where there are classes, teachers running exams, people structured in groups by age, following a curriculum—all of that.” (Seymour Papert; South African/American mathematician, computer scientist, and educator; 1928-2016.)

“If we desire to form individuals capable of inventive thought and of helping the society of tomorrow to achieve progress, then it is clear that an education which is an active discovery of reality is superior to one that consists merely in providing the young with ready-made wills to will with and ready-made truths to know with.” (Jean Piaget; Swiss philosopher, natural scientist, and educator, well known for his work studying children and his 4-stage theory of cognitive development; 1896-1980.)

“It is with children that we have the best chance of studying the development of logical knowledge, mathematical knowledge, physical knowledge, and so forth.” (Jean Piaget; Swiss philosopher, natural scientist, and educator, well known for his work studying children and his 4-stage theory of cognitive development; 1896-1980.)

“The principal goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done.” (Jean Piaget; Swiss philosopher, natural scientist, and educator, well known for his work studying children and his 4-stage theory of cognitive development; 1896-1980.)

“Elements of instruction...should be presented to the mind in childhood; not, however, under any notion of forcing education. A freeman ought not to be a slave in the acquisition of knowledge of any kind. Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.” (Plato; Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world; 428/427 BC-348/347 BC.)

“If women are to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.” (Plato; Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world; 428/427 BC-348/347 BC.)

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.” (Plutarch; Roman historian; 46-120.)

“Once you have learned how to ask relevant and appropriate questions, you have learned how to learn and no one can keep you from learning whatever you want or need to know.” (Neil Postman, 1931-2003, and Charles Weingartner; from Teaching as a Subversive Activity, Dell, 1969.)

“The wisest mind has something yet to learn.” (George Santayana; Spanish citizen raised and educated in the United States, generally considered an American man of letters; 1863-1952.)

“In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back.” (Charles Schulz; American cartoonist speaking through the voice of his comic strip character Charlie Brown; 1922-2000.)

“When you teach, you learn twice.” (Seneca; Roman philosopher and advocate of cooperative learning; 4 BC-65 AD.)

“Through learning we re-create ourselves. Through learning we become able to do something we never were able to do. Through learning we re-perceive the world and our relationship to it. Through learning we extend our capacity to create, to be part of the generative process of life. There is within each of us a deep hunger for this type of learning.” (Peter Senge; American scientist and director of the Center for Organizational Learning at the MIT Sloan School of Management; 1947-.)

“Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.” (George Bernard Shaw; Irish playwright; 1856-1950.)

“Because education will be much more efficient, it will probably cost less than it does now. This is not a utopian dream. It is well within the range of an existing technology of teaching.” (B.F. Skinner; American psychologist, author, advocate for social reform; 1904-1990.)

“Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.” (B.F. Skinner; American psychologist, author, advocate for social reform; 1904-1990.)

“All education springs from some image of the future. If the image of the future held by a society is grossly inaccurate, its education system will betray its youth.” (Alvin Toffler; American writer and futurist; 1928-2016.)

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be the one who can not read and write, but the one who can not learn, unlearn, an relearn.” (Alvin Toffler; American writer and futurist; 1928-2016.)

“Mankind owes to the child the best it has to give.” (United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child, 1959.)

“As the twig is bent the tree inclines.” (Virgil–Publius Vergilius Maro; Roman poet; 70 BC-19 BC.)

“Human history becomes, more and more, a race between education and catastrophe.” (H.G. Wells; English science fiction author; 1866-1946.)

“The time may not be very remote when it will be understood that for complete initiation as an efficient citizen of one of the great complex world states that are now developing, it is as necessary to be able to compute, to think in averages and maxima and minima, as it is now to be able to read and to write.” (H.G. Wells; English science fiction author; 1866-1946.)

“From the very beginning of his education, the child should experience the joy of discovery.” (Alfred North Whitehead; English mathematician and philosopher who wrote on algebra, logic, foundations of mathematics, philosophy of science, physics, metaphysics, and education, and co-authored the epochal Principia Mathematica with Bertrand Russell; 1861-1947.)

"If you want to make enemies, try to change something." (Thomas Woodrow Wilson; 28th President of the United States; 1856-1924.)

Online Sources for Quotations
Readers are encouraged to send additional sources of online math quotations to me via email at Moursund@uoregon.edu.

101 Great Computer Programming Quotes. Quoting from the site:


 * “As Bill Gates once warned, computers have indeed become our silicon masters, pervading nearly every aspect of our modern lives. As a result, some of the greatest minds of our time have pondered the significance of computers and software on the human condition.  Following are 101 great quotes about computers, with an emphasis on programming, since after all this is a software development site.” Retrieved 2/5/2013 from http://www.devtopics.com/101-great-computer-programming-quotes/.

BrainyQuote. Education. Hundreds of quotes arranged by topic and by popular authors. Indexed by subject and includes author for each quote. Sections on Education, Mathematics. Retrieved 2/5/2013 from http://www.brainyquote.com/.

Briasco-Brin, Alex. 8th Grade Math Quotes. Mathematics quotes, includes authors. Retrieved 2/5/2013 from https://sites.google.com/a/rsu5.org/8th-grade-math/home/quotes.

Crewton Raymone's House of Math. Quoting from the site:


 * “Here are some of my favorite Math quotes. You will find these quotes scattered about on every page of this site. Here they are, all in one place in no particular order. This is by no means a complete list. I'll be adding Math quotes here as well as other quotes on education and learning and then more general quotes that are semi-on topic. I collect quotes. Enjoy.” Retrieved 2/5/2013 from http://www.crewtonramoneshouseofmath.com/math-quotes.html.

Favorite Math Quotes. Furman University Mathematics Quotations Server. Authors identified. Retrieved 2/5/2013 from http://www.gateways2learning.com/Quotes.htm.

It Had to be You. Retrieved 2/5/2013 from http://www.ithadtobeyou.net/carpe/archives/001012.html.

Jerry Johnson at MathNEXUS Mathematics Portal: News and Ideas for Teachers and Learners of Mathematics. See “Quote of the Week” and “Humor of the Week.” Math Nexus Math Humor. As of 2/5/2013, 307 items have been posted. Retrieved 2/5/2013 from http://mathnexus.wwu.edu/Archive/humor/list.asp. and http://mathnexus.wwu.edu/aboutproject.html.

Kids Math Games. Funny Math Quotes. Retrieved 2/5/2013 from http://www.kidsmathgamesonline.com/facts/funnymathquotes.html.

Life Learning Magazine. Quotes about Life Learning; Quotes about Unschooling; Quotes about Home Schooling. Retrieved 2/5/2013 from www.lifelearningmagazine.com/quotes.

Marc Prensky's 2001 book "Digital Game-Based Learning" contains a number of good quotes related to games and education. See http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Game-Based%20Learning-Ch5.pdf

Math Cartoons, Jokes, Quotes. Retrieved 2/5/2013 from http://www.angelfire.com/nj4/mrmchale7/cartoonsjokesquotes.html.

Mathematical and Educational Quotation Server at Westfield State College. Can search by author, keyword, or description field. Quoting from the site:


 * “My students have reacted quite favorably to the ‘quote of the day,’ and I have found it often helps me organize my thoughts about a central theme.” Retrieved 2/6/2013 from http://www.westfield.ma.edu/math/faculty/fleron/quotes/.

Mathematical Humor. Collected by Andrej and Elena Cherkaev. Quoting from the site:


 * “The suggested collection of mathematical folklore might be enjoyable for mathematicians and for students because every joke contains a portion of truth or lie about our profession. The selected jokes and sayings contain something essential about mathematics, the mathematical way of thinking, or mathematical pop-culture.” Retrieved 2/5/2013 from http://www.math.utah.edu/~cherk/mathjokes.html.

Mr. L’s Math. Math and Teaching Quotations. Quoting from the site:


 * “These quotes have been used to stimulate student interest in math and can be tied into the lesson for the day, a current event, or a related subject of interest.” Retrieved 2/6/2013 from http://www.mrlsmath.com/download-materials/math-quotations/.

OnLineMathLearning.com. Math Quotes, Funny Math Quotes, Math Riddles, and Math Trivia Collection. Retrieved 2/5/2013 from http://www.onlinemathlearning.com/math-quotes.html.

Quotations about Mathematics. Contains lists of quotes: 1) by and about mathematicians; 2) about computers; 3) about math, logic, and knowledge; 4) about mathematics and the world; 5) about math and science; 6) about math, beauty, poetry, and the arts; 7) about numbers and arithmetic; 8) about algebra; 9) about geometry; 10) about statistics and probability; 11) about calculus and infinity; 12) miscellaneous quotes about math. On 2/4/2013 the site contained a total of 379 quotations, most with author identified. Retrieved 2/4/2013 from http://www.pleacher.com/mp/mquotes/mquotes.html.

Wiki Quotes: Education. Retrieved 2/5/2013 from http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Education.

Author and Acknowledgments
This page was created by David Moursund.

Thanks to Ann Lathrop for her editing assistance.

Thanks to Wikipedia, the source of much of the author information included here.

(2/7/2013—38,000) (3/1/2013–38,582)