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Talk:Mathematics

Stephen Tanner quote
I added the quotation back in because Wikiquote doesn't have formal notability requirements for people being quoted. The very existence of a template for quoting Usenet articles suggests a Usenet article is an okay source. The guideline is interestingness of quotations, not notability of the author. Also, when you remove a quotation, you're supposed to post it here on the talk page for discussion. Catamorphism 22:13, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Now I have deleted this quote again. Here it is on the talk page. Apologies for not listing it here before. Coming as I do from wikipedia I am not used to the local customs. You observe that wikiquote does not have formal notability requirements. However the fact that it does not does not automatically mean that any quote ought to be admissable. Otherwise I could quote my friends endlessly on wikiquote in a manner that no one but my in crowd could understand.
 * "Zoning laws can always be thwarted by horny topologists." -- Stephen Tanner,

I shall put down a reasonable test I feel that quotes on this page ought to meet:

 * The quote ought to be understandable outside of its original context (or the context ought to be well enough known that most people (aquainted with the subject matter) will still understand it.
 * The quote ought to be one of the following:
 * Known by many people.
 * Uttered by a famous person.
 * NB: Both of the above need to be tempered by the context of the quote. I.e a quote need only be known by many people familiar with its subject matter.
 * The quote ought to be one of the following:
 * Interesting
 * Funny
 * Rude
 * Of significance on its own
 * Of significance given its source or some additional context

Now furthermore one might be able to argue that a quote which meets only some of these requirements is acceptable. However the quote in question is not understandable outside of its original context. I do not know of this quote (neither do any of the PhD maths students I asked) and its only google hit is on this wikiquote page. I am willing to entertain any evidence that more than a handfull of people have heard this quote however I can find no such evidence myself. The quote is not from any famous source even when we restrict attention to mathematicians or even philosophers of mathematics. If I am wrong about this (and I have made enquiries) then do provide evidence to prove the contrary. I don't consider the quote to be interesting, funny or rude but I do consider it to be curiously bizaar. Hence this quote meets none of the above criteria except perhaps being of significance.

Now having read the usenet post carefully I can see the point that the quote attempts to make. However its hardly the most eloquent way of making this point and its hardly a quote about mathematics! So this quote would meet the the significance criteria if it were on the page concerning cryptography or maybe RSA encryption.

Now of course you may not agree with my precise criteria. If so I would challenge you to provide a criterion under which this would be admissable without my friends quotes concerning mathematics also being liable for inclusion. You may also disagree with my application of my own criteria in which case you can point out my error.

Otherwise I would think its quite clear that the article has been improved by this quotes removal. Barnaby Dawson 11:15 GMT 02-03-06 (ddmmyy)

Notability requirements
The fact that Wikiquote does not have a matching article for each Wikipedia policy article should not be taken to mean it doesn't have a formal policy on the subject. Our policy pages tend to be much fewer and more specific than Wikipedia's. Wikiquote is a much younger, vastly less active project, and so makes do with a minimal set of policy pages and an essential assumption of Wikipedia practices in the absence of specific policy to the contrary. On the matter of notability, we not only follow Wikipedia's guidelines, but we have some specific statements on the subject:

 * From Main Page: "Welcome to Wikiquote, a free online compendium of quotations from notable people and creative works…" [emphasis mine]
 * From Wikiquote: "Notable: We limit ourselves to quotations which are notable. A quotation can be notable either because it has achieved fame by itself, but more usually because it was said by someone notable, or appeared in a notable work."
 * From WQ:NOT: Wikiquote is not… a place for quotations by you and your friends. (However, you can put such quotations on your user page.)

The clause about a quote having "achieved fame by itself" should not be taken as a license to add anything that's on Usenet or any other WP-unreliable source. It's more for famous anonymous quotes and proverbs, and even that is currently controversial. Take a look at Votes for deletion on any given day and you'll find quite a few articles nominated because they about unnotable subjects; the same notability requirement applies to individual quotes.

It would be reasonable to expect Wikiquote to improve its policy pages to avoid this confusion. (I note that Policies and guidelines is currently virtually useless, as it's almost completely a copy of Wikipedia's old version, which doesn't provide much Wikiquote-specific information.) The problem is that there are less than half a dozen editors at any given time (of the 3,000+ registered editors and who-knows-how-many anonymous ones) who are working on this badly needed area of maintenance, and most of their time is spent doing other, even more critical maintenance (like vandal reversions, VfDs, Main Page updating, etc.). Until Wikiquote "grows up", we must make do with a few specific policies and a general assumption that if it doesn't fly on Wikipedia, it won't on Wikiquote. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 17:41, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Random question
I came here because I was trying to find the source of a particular quote. I cannot have the words correct (otherwise I would have found it by now) but it was approximately "Mathematics is the study of all possible universes". Does anyone know what the correct quote is and by whom it was uttered? Barnaby Dawson
 * Maybe C. Taubes in http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/nsf0120/nsf0120_28.htm ?

Mathematics consists of the study of all possible worlds, with the goal of uncovering transcendent, universal relationships and underlying symmetries. -213.219.160.64 21:21, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

George Polya attribution
I doubt the un-sourced attribution to George Polya of "Mathematics consists of proving the most obvious thing in the least obvious way." Anyone familiar with his pedagogical work would know that if he ever said such a thing at all it could only have been with ironic intent. He did indeed employ irony, but if he said this then taking it out of context is a gross misrepresentation of his views. ~ Ningauble 22:08, 24 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Afterthought: At least this scurrilous graffito spurred me to start an article on George Polya. I can't believe there was not one already. ~ Ningauble 17:33, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Unsourced

 * Mathematics is music for the mind; Music is mathematics for the soul.
 * Stanley Gudder

 * Mathematics is man's attempt on understanding nature.
 * A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn't there.
 * Mathematics seems to endow one with something like a new sense.
 * Charles Darwin

 * As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality. (**see section below)
 * Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater.
 * God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically.
 * I don't believe in mathematics.
 * Since the mathematicians have invaded the theory of relativity, I do not understand it myself anymore.
 * Albert Einstein

 * A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems.
 * Paul Erdos

 * As long as algebra is taught in school, there will be prayer in school.
 * Cokie Roberts

 * God does arithmetic.
 * Karl Friedrich Gauss

 * God made the natural numbers, all the rest is the work of man.
 * Leopold Kronecker

 * He who can properly define and divide is to be considered a god.
 * The knowledge of which geometry aims is the knowledge of the eternal.
 * Mathematics is like checkers in being suitable for the young, not too difficult, amusing, and without peril to the state.
 * Plato

 * I admit that mathematical science is a good thing. But excessive devotion to it is a bad thing.
 * Aldous Huxley

 * I am accustomed, as a professional mathematician, to living in a sort of vacuum, surrounded by people who declare with an odd sort of pride that they are mathematically illiterate.
 * David Mumford

 * I have no faith in political arithmetic.
 * Adam Smith

 * If I feel unhappy, I do mathematics to become happy. If I am happy, I do mathematics to keep happy.
 * Alfréd Rényi

 * In great mathematics there is a very high degree of unexpectedness, combined with inevitability and economy.
 * G. H. Hardy

 * In mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them.
 * John Von Neumann

 * It is easy to lie with statistics. It is hard to tell the truth without it.
 * Andrejs Dunkels

 * Life is good for only two things, discovering mathematics and teaching mathematics.
 * Siméon Poisson

 * Mathematical proofs, like diamonds, are hard and clear, and will be touched with nothing but strict reasoning.
 * John Locke

 * Mathematicians are like lovers. Grant a mathematician the least principle, and he will draw from it a consequence which you must also grant him, and from this consequence another.
 * Bernard Le Bouyer de Fontenelle

 * Mathematics is a divine madness of the human spirit, a refuge from the goading urgency of contingent happenings.
 * Alfred North Whitehead

 * [Mathematics] is an independent world created out of pure intelligence.
 * William Wordsworth

 * Mathematics is not yet capable of coping with the naïveté of the mathematician himself.
 * Abraham Kaplan

 * Mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things.
 * Jules Henri Poincaré
 * Source: Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty, p. 273.
 * Helder 22:13, 25 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Mathematics is the only instructional material that can be presented in an entirely undogmatic way.
 * Max Dehn

 * Mathematics is the science of what is clear by itself.
 * Carl Jacobi

 * Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true. (referring to the axiomatic method, where certain properties of an (otherwise unknown) structure are assumed and consequences thereof are then logically derived)
 * Mathematics takes us into the region of absolute necessity, to which not only the actual word, but every possible word, must conform.
 * How dare we speak of the laws of chance? Is not chance the antithesis of all law?
 * Bertrand Russell

 * To those who do not know mathematics it is difficult to get across a real feeling as to the beauty, the deepest beauty, of nature ... If you want to learn about nature, to appreciate nature, it is necessary to understand the language that she speaks in.
 * Richard Feynman

 * Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so.
 * Galileo Galilei

 * No human investigation can be called real science if it cannot be demonstrated mathematically.
 * Leonardo da Vinci

 * 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

 * One cannot escape the feeling that these mathematical formulas have an independent existence and an intelligence of their own, that they are wiser than we are, wiser even than their discoverers, that we get more out of them than was originally put into them.
 * Heinrich Rudolf Hertz

 * Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare.
 * René Descartes

 * Pure mathematics, may it never be of any use to anyone.
 * Henry John Stephen Smith

 * Sex is the mathematics urge sublimated.
 * M. C. Reed

 * The art of doing mathematics consists in finding that special case which contains all the germs of generality.
 * The infinite! No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man.
 * Mathematics is a game played according to certain simple rules with meaningless marks on paper.
 * David Hilbert

 * The imaginary number is a fine and wonderful recourse of the divine spirit, almost an amphibian between being and not being.
 * Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

 * The mathematician has reached the highest rung on the ladder of human thought.
 * Havelock Ellis

 * 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

 * The simplest schoolboy is now familiar with facts for which Archimedes would have sacrificed his life.
 * Ernest Renan

 * There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
 * Leonard H. Courtney. Often attributed (including by Mark Twain) to Benjamin Disraeli.

 * There is no branch of mathematics, however abstract, which may not some day be applied to phenomena of the real world.
 * Nikolai Lobachevsky

 * In real life there is no such thing as algebra.
 * Fran Lebowitz

 * There is something I don't understand about algebra: It has been around for thousands of years, yet no one has ever found out what the value of "x" or "y" really is.
 * Anonymous

one of the Einstein attributions
In 'unsourced' above is
 * As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

The WP article Mathematics gives this note for that quote: 'Einstein, p. 28. The quote is Einstein's answer to the question: "how can it be that mathematics, being after all a product of human thought which is independent of experience, is so admirably appropriate to the objects of reality?" ' and gives source 'Einstein, Albert (1923). Sidelights on Relativity (Geometry and Experience). P. Dutton., Co.' -R. S. Shaw 01:52, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

 * Can be confirmed via Google Books, page 28: --138.246.2.177 11:12, 17 October 2013 (UTC)

Colin Beveridge initiative
FYI http://aperiodical.com/2018/04/wikiquote-edit-a-thon-saturday-may-12th-2018/ --Nemo 17:27, 5 April 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:Mathematics


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User talk:69.124.124.229

~ UDScott 23:00, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User talk:69.124.124.229


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User talk:69.242.195.110

~ UDScott 23:50, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

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Stephen Decatur

Commodore Stephen Decatur, Jr. (5 January 1779 – 22 March 1820) was an American naval officer, notable for his heroism in actions at Tripoli, Libya in the Barbary Wars and in the War of 1812.

Quotes

 * Our country – In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right, and always successful, right or wrong.
 * Toast at a dinner in Norfolk, Virginia (April 1816) reported in Niles' Weekly Register (Baltimore, Maryland) 20 April 1816; as cited in Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (2010), Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service, p. 70
 * Variant: Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong.
 * [emphasis added] This widely quoted version is attributed in Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, Life of Stephen Decatur: A Commodore in the Navy of the United States (1846), C. C. Little and J. Brown, p. 443.
 * This statement produced the famous slogan "My country, right or wrong!" which itself produced famous responses by:
 * Carl Schurz "...if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right."
 * Schurz, Carl, remarks in the Senate, February 29, 1872, The Congressional Globe, vol. 45, p. 1287. See Wikisource for the complete speech.
 * G. K. Chesterton "'My country, right or wrong' is a thing that no patriot would think of saying, except in a desperate case. It is like saying, 'My mother, drunk or sober'." -- A Defence of Patriotism

title: Stephen Decatur


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User talk:203.166.96.235

Incidents of deliberate vandalism have resulted in this IP address being temporarily blocked from editing. ~ Kalki 02:55, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

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User talk:203.166.96.239

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User talk:203.166.96.234

Incidents of deliberate vandalism have resulted in this IP address being temporarily blocked from editing. ~ Kalki 03:00, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

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Template:Hnote

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User:MegamanZero

{| border="1" You should have been blocked for a lot longer than a month, my friend.--Jimbo Wales 17:13, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

We are not in the business of 'outing' people, and we must continue to have deep and profound respect for the subjects of our biographies. ---Jimbo Wales 14:33, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Projects

 * 1) List of Mega Man Zero characters- [[Image:Yes_check.svg|15px|Yes]]
 * 2) Mega Man Zero Boss characters- [[Image:Yes_check.svg|15px|Yes]]
 * 3) List of Mega Man weapons- finished [[Image:Yes_check.svg|15px|Yes]]
 * 4) Zero (character)- Finished [[Image:Yes_check.svg|15px|Yes]]
 * 5) Mega Man X (character) - finished [[Image:Yes_check.svg|15px|Yes]]
 * 6) Silent Mobius- minor editing to do [[Image:X_mark.svg|15px|No]]
 * 7) Seven Samurai 20XX- [[Image:Yes_check.svg|15px|Yes]]
 * 8) List of Mega Man X characters- haven't started yet
 * 9) Dead or Alive Bios-  [[Image:Yes_check.svg|15px|Yes]]
 * 10) Mega Man article ovehall- [[Image:X_mark.svg|15px|No]]
 * 11) Parasite Eve - need to elaborate on PEII storyline [[Image:X_mark.svg|15px|No]]
 * 12) Tekken Finished making sepearte articles for each game; must overhall character pages
 * 13) King of Fighters Character bios - Still reqires expansion here and there, but much better than before [[Image:X_mark.svg|15px|No]]
 * 14) Make King of Fighter page for quotes on Wikiquote. The saturation here is utterly beyond belief. [[Image:X_mark.svg|15px|No]]
 * 15) Samurai Shodown character articles [[Image:X_mark.svg|15px|No]]
 * 16) .Hack character articles

title: User:MegamanZero


text: Talk:Field of Dreams

title: Talk:Field of Dreams


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Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (Konstanty Ciołkowski, Константин Эдуардович Циолковский; September 17 (old style: September 5) 1857 - September 19 1935) was a Russian and Soviet rocket scientist who pioneered astronautic theory. Along with the Frenchman Robert Esnault-Pelterie, the Transylvanian German Hermann Oberth and the American Robert H. Goddard, he is one of the founding fathers of modern rocketry and astronautics. His works later inspired leading Soviet rocket-engineers Sergei Korolev and Valentin Glushko who contributed to the success of the Soviet space program.

Quotes

 * Планета есть колыбель разума, но нельзя вечно жить в колыбели
 * from "Исследование мировых пространств реактивными приборами" [The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices], 1911—1912, first published in Vestnik Vozdukhoplavaniya, №3, 1912
 * Transliteration: Planyeta yest' kolybyel razuma, no nyelzya vyechno zhit' v kolybyeli
 * The planet is the cradle of mind, but one cannot live in a cradle forever.
 * usually cited as Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot live in a cradle forever.

 * Человечество не останется вечно на земле, но в погоне за светом и пространством сначала робко проникнет за пределы атмосферы, а затем завоюет себе все околосолнечное пространство
 * from Воздухоплавание в наше время // Современный мир. — 1912. — № 7. — С. 260. (used as His epitaph)
 * Man will not always stay on earth; the pursuit of light and space will lead him to penetrate the bounds of the atmosphere, timidly at first, but in the end to conquer the whole of solar space.
 * Mentioned in Beyond the Planet Earth, by K. Tsiolkovsky (1920), translated by K. Syers (1960), reviewed by M. G. Whillans, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Vol. 55 (1961), p. 144
 * Variant translation: Mankind will not remain on the earth forever, but, in search of light and space, will at first timidly penetrate beyond the limits of the atmosphere and then finally conquer the spaces of the solar system.

 * All the Universe is full of the life of perfect creatures.
 * from "The Scientific Ethics", 1930

 * The blue distance, the mysterious Heavens, the example of birds and insects flying everywhere —are always beckoning Humanity to rise into the air.
 * from "The Successes of Air Balloons in the XIX Century", 1901

 * Нет бога-творца, но есть космос, производящий солнца, планеты и живых существ. Нет всемогущего бога, но есть вселенная, которая распоряжается судьбой всех небесных тел и их жителей. Нет сынов божьих, но есть зрелые и потому разумные и совершенные сыны космоса. Нет личных богов, но есть избранные правители: планет, солнечных систем, звёздных групп, млечных путей, эфирных островов и всего космоса. Нет Христа, но есть гениальный человек, великий учитель человечества.
 * from Нет ничего (Мысли безбожника) [There is nothing (Atheist's thoughts)], quoted in Л.В. Шапошникова, Вестники космической эволюции.
 * There is no God-Creator, but there is the Cosmos, which creates suns, planets and living beings. There is no omnipotent God, but there is the Universe, which governs the fates of all celestial bodies and their inhabitants. There are no sons of God, but there are mature and thus rational and perfect sons of the Cosmos. There are no personal gods, but there are elected leaders of planets, solar systems, stellar groups, milky ways, islands of ether and the whole Cosmos. There is no Christ, but there is a brilliant man and a greater teacher of mankind.

 * Ничего нет, кроме атомов и их сочетаний. Нет атома, который периодически не принимал бы участия в жизни
 * from Новая этика (из монизма)
 * Nothing exists, save atoms and their combinations. There is no atom, which wouldn't periodically take part in life.

 * Ничего не признаю, кроме материи. В физике, химии и биологии я вижу одну механику. Весь космос только бесконечный и сложный механизм. Сложность его так велика, что граничит с произволом, неожиданностью и случайностью, она дает иллюзию свободной воли сознательных существ.
 * from Монизм Вселенной ("Monism of the Universe"), 1931(?) (= "The Cosmic Philosophy", 1932 ?)
 * I recognize nothing that is not material. In physics, chemistry and biology I see only mechanics. The Universe is nothing but an infinite and complex mechanism. Its complexity is so great that it borders on willfulness, suddenness, and randomness; it gives the illusion of free will possessed by conscious beings.

 * Мир отчаянно несовершенен. Коли бы четвертая часть человеческих работников была поглощена новыми мыслями и изобретениями и сидела бы на шее остальных, то человечество все же чрезмерно бы выиграло благодаря непрерывному потоку изобретений и интеллектуальных трудов, исходящих из этой оравы стремящихся ввысь.
 * from Гений среди людей ("The Genius of the People") -- a manuscript written in 1918
 * The world is desperately imperfect. Even if a quarter of the working people were engrossed in new thoughts and inventions and lived off the others, humanity would still gain tremendously thanks to the constant stream of inventions and intellectual work emerging from this horde of people striving upward.

 * Tolstoy was an advocate of non-resistance only because he was protected from people’s impudence by his innumerable friends. One man can stand for non-resistance, because those who stand for resistance will protect him. You will not be able to do without resistance advocates.
 * from Non-resistance or struggle -- a manuscript written in 1935

 * Этика космоса, т.е. ее сознательных существ состоит в том, чтобы не было нигде никаких страданий: ни для совершенных, ни для других недозрелых или начинающих своё развитие животных. Это есть выражение чистейшего себялюбия (эгоизма). Ведь если во вселенной не будет мук и неприятностей, то ни один ее атом не попадёт в несовершенный страдальческий или преступный организм.
 * from Научная этика
 * Ethics of the Cosmos, ie. its conscious creatures means that there shouldn't be any suffering anywhere: neither for perfected nor for other immature ones or ones that are starting their development. It is an expression of pure selfishness (egoism). If there will be no ordeals or nuisances in the Universe, not even one atom will be a part of an imperfect, suffering or criminal organism.

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Talk:Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Can we put the lyrics for the radiostations here? Marcus--[[User:84.202.23.114|84.202.23.114] 19:59, 2 March 2006 (UTC)]
 * Of course not, its main intention are dialogues from the game --Lothar
 * Can I upload screenshot on Fair Use licension from english wikipedia?, an article w:Grand Theft Auto: Vice City? I think, screenshoot will be usable? Prasuk talk to me 09:33, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

Copyright notice
As part of the Copyright Cleanup Project, this article has been trimmed to a maximum of three quotes per electronic game. Additional quotations could be added so long as an equal number are deleted. See Limits on quotations for guidelines. - InvisibleSun 23:44, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

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One Thousand and One Nights

One Thousand and One Nights is a medieval Middle-Eastern literary work that consists of a number of stories being told by Queen Scheherazade to her mad husband, King Shahryar.

Frame story

 * Scheherazade … possessed courage, wit, and penetration, infinitely above her sex. She had read much, and had so admirable a memory, that she never forgot any thing she had read. She had successfully applied herself to philosophy, medicine, history, and the liberal arts; and her poetry excelled the compositions of the best writers of her time. Besides this, she was a perfect beauty, and all her accomplishments were crowned by solid virtue.
 * The Arabian Nights Entertainments  (1811) as translated by Jonathan Scott, Vol. I, p. 20

The History of Aladdin

 * "Who will change old lamps for new ones? New lamps for old?"

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

 * "Open Sesame!"

Tale of Zummurud and Ali-Shar
I was dust which was, But now I am dust in dust I am dust which never was.
 * When I was alive

Either a friend or lover to your mind; If you must love, oh then, love solitude, For solitude alone is true and kind.
 * On the black road of life think not to find

Tale of King Umar al-Numan

 * Maslamah ibn Dinar said: "Each pleasure that does not forward the soul to God is not so much as a pleasure as a calamity."

 * I hope that Allah will not make me immortal, for death is his greatest gift to any true believer.

 * Each man envies, the strong openly, the weak in secret.

Quotes about

 * I discovered fantasy and eroticism in One Thousand and One Nights, which I read in Lebanon at age fourteen. At that time and in that place, girls didn't have much social life aside from school and family; we didn't even go to the movies. My only escape from a troublesome family life was reading. My stepfather had four mysterious leather volumes in his locked closet, forbidden books that I was not supposed to see because they were “erotic.” Of course I found a way to copy the key and get in the closet when he was not around. I used a flashlight, could not mark the pages, and read quickly, skipping pages and looking for the dirty parts. My hormones were raging and my imagination went wild with those fantastic tales. When critics call me a Latin America Sheherazade I feel very flattered!
 * Isabel Allende Interview

 * my auntie, Tití, who was the reader in the family, gave me a picture book version of “The Arabian Nights,” and I was smitten. Scheherazade, the young heroine, was a girl who looked Dominican, dark eyed, dark hair, olive skin. Then, the whole idea of a girl saving her life and that of all women in the kingdom and transforming a cruel sultan by telling stories. That book put a luminous bit of information in my head: that stories have power, that they can transform you and save you.
 * Julia Alvarez interview (2019)

 * It is a book so vast that it is not necessary to have read it, for it is a part of our memory.
 * Jorge Luis Borges, Seven Nights (1984), p. 57

 * Another book that was very important for me was A Thousand and One Nights. I used to read that when I was around ten or younger.
 * Rosario Ferré interview in Backtalk: Women Writers Speak Out by Donna Marie Perry (1993)

 * I'd like every single Arab to read One Thousand and One Nights. They [would] learn a lot from them, especially [because] these stories were written away from the influence of religion. It's interesting to see how we were open, how we had a dialogue with each other, how we wanted to understand, how we respected each other. There was a great dignity, and I'd like this to be restored again.
 * Hanan al-Shaykh, "Scheherazade: From Storytelling 'Slave' To 'First Feminist'" at NPR (9 June 2013)

title: One Thousand and One Nights


text:
Talk:Ray Bradbury

Type of Author
Just a thought, rather than just science-fiction, maybe bradbury's author category should be expanded to include Romantic and Realist... he surely is both of these... --12.166.242.218 21:34, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Bradbury's powerful imagery makes his work a complex joy to read. Take for example Something Wicked This Way Comes: in chapter 42, he uses the word panoply to set up the whole chapter. Panoply is defined as a splendid or striking array, something that covers and protects, the complete weapons and armor of a warrior, and something made of science fiction that seems as if it is real. Bradbury shows how Mr. Dark uses his tattoos in every definition of the panoply. A whole chapter connected by one work, what a joy to read! Panoply can also describe Bradbury's writing style, especially the last definition. His method of writing takes pure science fiction and makes it seem as if it were completely real. Pure genious! James Otteman, April 7, 2006

Unsourced
Wikiquote no longer allows unsourced quotations, and they are in process of being removed from our pages (see Wikiquote:Limits on quotations); but if you can provide a reliable, precise and verifiable source for any quote on this list please move it to Ray Bradbury. --Antiquary 17:42, 8 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Anything you dream is fiction, and anything you accomplish is science, the whole history of mankind is nothing but science fiction.

 * At 7 a.m. all my voices start talking inside my head, and when it reaches a certain pitch I jump out and trap them before they're gone. Or I shower and then the voices talk. You solve problems not by thinking directly of them but allowing them to ferment in their own time.

 * Bill Gates and his partners are flimflamming America. (1995)

 * Bill, I don't do Windows.

 * Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things.

 * If we listened to our intellect we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go in business because we'd be cynical: "It's gonna go wrong." Or "She's going to hurt me." Or,"I've had a couple of bad love affairs, so therefore . . ." Well, that's nonsense. You're going to miss life. You've got to jump off the cliff all the time and build your wings on the way down.

 * If you dream the proper dreams, and share the myths with people, they will want to grow up to be like you.

 * Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for.

 * Science fiction is the most important literature in the history of the world, because it's the history of ideas, the history of our civilization birthing itself. ...Science fiction is central to everything we've ever done, and people who make fun of science fiction writers don't know what they're talking about.

 * [Television is] a really dreadful influence on all of us. Don't ever look at local television news again. It's all crap. There's no news, there's no information. It's negative, negative, negative. You look at that, and you think the world is coming to an end.

 * The animated cartoon is just about the purest, least arguable, most invigorating art form invented since mankind did shadow shows with wriggling fingers, then trapped them in cave-wall graffiti 200 generations ago...

 * The best scientist is open to experience and begins with romance— the idea that anything is possible.

 * The jails are full of one million non-readers. We can't let it happen again. If you allow another generation to grow up to be 12 years old... without the ability to read, write, and think, we're sunk. If they can't read, if they can't write, if they can't think, they become criminals. We've already lost two generations. Unless we teach reading intensely and completely in kindergarten and first grade, the whole civilization goes to hell.

 * The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little.

 * There still are people who will come up to you and say: "Science Fiction? Ha! Why read that?!" The most direct, off-putting reply is: Science fiction is the most important fiction ever invented by writers. It saw a whole mob of troubles pouring toward us across the shoals of time and cried, "Head for the hills, the dam is broke!" But no one listened. Now, people have pricked up their ears, and opened their eyes.

 * Touch a scientist and you touch a child.

 * We are an impossibility in an impossible universe

 * We are the miracle of force and matter making itself over into imagination and will. Incredible. The Life Force experimenting with forms. You for one. Me for another. The Universe has shouted itself alive. We are one of the shouts.

 * When people ask me where I get my imagination, I simply lament, "God, here and there, makes madness a calling."

 * You feed yourself. Make sure you have all the information, whether it's aesthetic, scientific, mathematical, I don't care what it is. Then you walk away from it and let it ferment. You ignore it and pretend you don't care. Next thing you know, the answer comes.

 * You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance.

 * You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

 * There’s no use going to school unless your final destination is the library.

Sourced Bradbury quotes
I've removed two quotes from the list above, as they are now on the page, one in slightly different form, with attributions. Markjoseph125 (talk) 03:15, 10 March 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Ray Bradbury


text:
User talk:Loveandbball23

aka: Dirty Bananas, Dirty, Pimp, db
 * Let's get naked and start the Revolution! ~ Daniel Patrick Barry

title: User talk:Loveandbball23


text:
Antonio Porchia

Antonio Porchia (13 November 1886 – 9 November 1968) was an Italian-born Argentine writer. His sole book Voces ("Voices") is a collection of aphorisms.

Voces (1943)

 * Pártase de cualquier punto. Todos son iguales. Todos llevan a un punto de partida.
 * Set out from any point. They are all alike. They all lead to a point of departure.

 * El árbol está solo, la nube está sola. Todo está solo cuando yo estoy solo.
 * The trees are alone, the clouds are alone. Everything is alone when I am alone.

 * Mi cuerpo me separa de todo ser y de toda cosa. Nada más que mi cuerpo.
 * My body separates me from all beings and all things. Only my body.

 * Sí, eso es el bien: perdonar el mal. No hay etro bien.
 * Yes, this is what is good: to forgive evil. There is no other good.

 * ¿Habría este buscar eterno si lo hallado existiese?
 * Would there be this eternal seeking if the found existed?

 * Cuando busco mi existencia, no la busco en mí.
 * When I look for my existence, I do not look for it in myself.

 * Arrancamos a la vida la vida, para con ella, verla.
 * We tear life out of life to use it for looking at itself.

 * Percibimos el vacío, llenándolo.
 * We become aware of the void as we fill it.

 * Voy perdiendo el deseo de lo que busco, buscando lo que deseo.
 * I stop wanting what I am looking for, looking for it.

 * Quien busca en su bien un bien mayor, pierde su bien.
 * One who searches for a larger good in his good, loses his good.

 * Sí, es necesario padecer, aún en vano, para no vivir en vano.
 * Yes, it is necessary to suffer, even in vain, so as not to live in vain.

 * Casi siempre es el miedo de ser nosotros lo que nos lleva delante del espejo.
 * Almost always is it a the fear of being ourselves that brings us to the mirror.

 * Está atado a ellos y no comprendes cómo, porque ellos no están atados a ti.
 * You are fastened to them and cannot understand how, because they are not fastened to you.

 * Durmiendo sueño lo que despierto sueño. Y mi soñar es continuo.
 * When I am asleep, I dream what I dream when I am awake. It's a continuous dream.

 * Herir al corazón es crearlo.
 * To wound the heart is to create it.

 * Sí, trataré de ser. Porque creo que es orgullo no ser.
 * Yes, I will try to be. Because I believe that not being is arrogant.

 * Quien se queda mucho consigo mismo, se envilece.
 * He who remains with himself for a long time, degrades.

 * No vez el río de llanto porque la falta una lágrima tuya.
 * You do not see the river of mourning because it lacks one tear of your own.

 * Sin esa tonta vanidad que es el mostrarnos y que es de todos y de todo, no veríamos nada y no existiría nada.
 * Without this ridiculous vanity that takes the form of self-display and is part of everything and everyone, we would see nothing, and nothing would exist.

 * Quien hace un paraíso de un pan, de su hambre hace un infierno.
 * He who makes a paradise of his bread makes a hell of his hunger.

 * Ser alguien es ser alguien solo. Ser alguien es soledad.
 * Being someone is being one alone. Being someone is loneliness.

 * Las dificultades también pasan, como todo pasa, sin dificultad.
 * Troubles also pass, as everything passes, without trouble.

 * El ir derecho acorta las distancias, y también la vida.
 * Following straight lines shortens distances, and also life.

 * Creo que son los males del alma, el alma. Porque el alma que se cura de sus males, muere.
 * I believe that the soul consists of its sufferings. For the soul that cures its own sufferings dies.

 * Se puede no deber nada devolviendo la luz al sol.
 * You can owe nothing, if you give back its light to the sun.

 * El temor de separación es todo lo que une.
 * The fear of separation is all that unites.

 * Si nada se nos fuera durante la vida, se nos iría la vida sin nada.
 * If we didn't lose anything during life, we would lose life without anything.

 * Cuando me hiciste otro, te dejé conmigo.
 * When you made me into another, I left you with me.

 * Nadie puede no ir más allá. Y más allá hay un abismo.
 * No one can help going beyond, and beyond there is an abyss.

 * Con mi encadenamiento a la tierra pago la libertad de mis ojos.
 * I am chained to the earth to pay for the freedom of my eyes.

 * Quien no llena su mundo de fantasmas, se queda solo.
 * He who does not fill his world with phantoms remains alone.

 * Cuanto menos uno cree ser, más soporta. Y si cree ser nada, soporta todo.
 * The less you think you are, the more you bear. And if you think you are nothing, you bear everything.

 * Las veces que me comprendo un poco, comprendo menos a los demás.
 * Times when I understand myself a little, I understand others less.

 * El amor que no es todo dolor, no es todo amor.
 * The love that is not all pain is not all love.

 * Si pudiera dejar todo como está, sin mover ni una estrella, ni una nube. ¡Ah, si pudiera!
 * If only I could leave everything as it is, without moving a single star or a single cloud. Oh, if only I could!

 * Y si cuanto encuentras es en cuanto buscas, siempre, en vano encuentras, en vano buscas.
 * And if you find everything as soon as you look for it, you find it in vain, you look for it in vain.

 * Los que dieron sus alas están tristes, de no verlas volar.
 * Those who gave away their wings are sad not to see them fly.

 * Está triste, porque te abandonan y no estás caído.
 * You are sad because they abandon you and you have not fallen.

 * Hombres y cosas, suben, bajan, se alejan, se acercan. Todo es una comedia de distancias.
 * Men and things rise, fall, move away, approach. Everything is a comedy of distances.

 * He abandonado la indigente necesidad de vivir. Vivo sin ella.
 * I’ve abandoned the beggarly need to live. I live without it.

 * A veces lo que deseo y lo que no deseo se hacen tantas concesiones que llegan a parecerse.
 * Sometimes what I want and what I don’t want make so many concessions to each other that they end up looking alike.

 * Nada no es solamente nada. Es también nuestra cárcel.
 * Nothing is not only nothing. It is also our prison.

 * Con las palabras que no he dicho he desarmado mis armas.
 * With the words I haven’t said I’ve disarmed my weapons.

 * Iría al paraíso, pero con mi infierno; solo, no.
 * I would go to heaven, but I would take my hell; I would not go alone.

 * Nada termina sin romperse, porque todo es sin fin.
 * Nothing ends without breaking, because everything is endless.

 * Han dejado de engañarte, no de quererte. Y te parece que han dejado de quererte.
 * They have stopped deceiving you, not loving you. And it seems to you that they have stopped loving you.

 * Quien me tiene de un hilo no es fuerte; lo fuerte es el hilo.
 * He who holds me by a thread is not strong; the thread is strong.

 * Cuando yo muera, no me veré morir, por primera vez.
 * When I die, I will not see myself die, for the first time.

 * Tú crees que me matas. Yo creo que te suicidas.
 * You think you kill me. I think you kill yourself.

 * Mi pesadez viene de los precipicios.
 * My heaviness comes from the heights.

 * Mueren cien años en un instante, lo mismo que un instante en un instante.
 * A hundred years die in a moment, just as a moment dies in a moment.

 * De lo que tomo, tomo de más o de menos, no tomo lo justo. Lo justo no me sirve.
 * Whatever I take, I take too much or too little; I do not take the exact amount. The exact amount is no use to me.

 * Porque saben el nombre de lo que busco ¡creen que saben lo que busco!
 * Because they know the name of what I am looking for, they think they know what I am looking for!

 * Una cosa, hasta no ser toda, es ruido, y todo, es silencio.
 * A thing, until it is everything, is noise, and once it is everything it is silence.

 * Lo que dicen las palabras no dura. Duran las palabres. Porque las palabras son siempre las mismas y lo que dicen no es nunca lo mismo.
 * What words say does not last. The words last. Because words are always the same, and what they say is never the same.

 * Antes de recorrer mi camino yo era mi camino.
 * Before I traveled my road I was my road.

 * Estar en compañía no es estar con alguien, sino estar en alguien.
 * To be in company is not to be with someone, but to be in someone.

 * Habla con su propia palabra sólo la herida.
 * Only the wound speaks its own word.

 * Se vive con la esperanza de llegar a ser un recuerdo.
 * One lives in the hope of becoming a memory.

 * En último instante, toda mi vida durará un instante.
 * In its last moment, the whole of my life will last only a moment.

 * Algunos, adelantándose a todos, van ganando el desierto.
 * Some, in getting ahead of everyone, are winning themselves the desert.

 * A veces, de noche, enciendo una luz, para no ver.
 * Sometimes at night, I turn on the light so as not to see.

 * No, no entro. Porque si entro no hay nadie.
 * No, I won’t come in. Because if I come in no one will be there.

 * Qué te he dado, lo sé. Qué has recibido, no lo sé.
 * I know what I have given you, I do not know what you have received.

 * La verdad tiene muy pocos amigos y los muy pocos amigos que tiene son suicidas.
 * Truth has very few friends and those few are suicides.

 * Quien ama sabiendo por qué ama, no ama.
 * Whoever loves knowing why they love, doesn’t love.

 * En una alma llena cabe todo y en una alma vacía no cabe nada.
 * In a full heart there is room for everything. In an empty heart there is room for nothing.

 * Dirán que andas por un camino equivocado, si andas por tu camino.
 * They’ll say you’re walking down the wrong path, if you’re walking down your path.

 * Quien dice la verdad, casi no dice nada.
 * One who says the truth says hardly anything.

 * La condenación de un error es otro error.
 * The condemnation of an error is another error.

 * El dolor está arriba, no abajo. Y todos creen que el dolor está abajo. Y todos quieren subir.
 * Pain lies above, not below. And they all think that pain is below. And they all want to rise.

 * Si no levantas los ojos, creerás que eres el punto más alto.
 * If you do not raise your eyes, you will think you are the highest point.

 * Lo pagado con nuestra vida nunca es caro.
 * What we pay for with our lives never costs too much.

 * El hombre habla de todo y habla de todo como si el conocimiento de todo estuviese todo en él.
 * Man talks about everything, and he talks about everything as though the understanding of everything were all inside him.

 * Las certidumbres sólo se alcanzan con los pies.
 * Certainties are arrived at only on foot.

 * Un corazón grande se llena con muy poco.
 * A big heart can be filled with very little.

 * El hombre, cuando es solamente lo que parece ser el hombre, casi no es nada.
 * Man, when he is merely what he seems to be, is almost nothing.

 * Cada uno creo que sus cosas no son como todo las cosas de este mundo. Y es por ello que cada uno tiene sus cosas.
 * Everyone thinks that their things are not like all the other things in the world, and that is why everyone keeps them.

 * Si eres bueno con éste, con aquél dirán que eres bueno. Si eres bueno con todos, nadie dirá que eres bueno.
 * If you are good to this one and that one, this one and that one will say you are good. If you are good to everyone, no one will say that you are good.

 * Quien asciende peldaño a peldaño, se halla siempre a la altura de un peldaño.
 * If you climb up step by step, you’ll always find yourself level with a step.

 * El sueño que no se alimenta de sueño desaparece.
 * The dream that doesn’t feed on dream disappears.

 * He sido para mí, discípulo y maestro. Y he sido un buen discípulo, pero un mal maestro.
 * I have been my own disciple and my own master. And I have been a good disciple but a bad master.

 * Las cadenas que más nos encadenan son las cadenas que hemos roto.
 * The chains that bind us most closely are the ones we have broken.

 * En mi silencio sólo falta mi voz.
 * From my silence, only my voice is missing.

 * No descubras, que puede no haber nada. Y nada no se vuelve a cubrir.
 * Don’t uncover, because there might be nothing. And nothing can’t be covered again.

 * La tragedia del hombre es mayor cuando se la deja caer.
 * The tragedy of a man is greater when he gives it up.

 * Mucho de lo he dejado de hacer en mí, sigue haciéndose en mí, solo.
 * A great deal that I no longer continue in myself continues there on its own.

 * A veces estoy en un infierno y no me lamento. No encuentro de qué lamentarme.
 * Sometimes it as though I were in hell and I do not grieve. I do not find anything to grieve over.

 * Te ayudaré a venir si vienes y a no venir si no vienes.
 * I will help you approach if you approach, and to keep away if you keep away.

 * Mis verdades duran poco en mí: menos que las ajenas.
 * My truths do not last long in me, not as long as those that are not mine.

 * Cuando me conformo con nada es cuando me conformo de todo.
 * It is when I assent to nothing that I assent to all.

 * Quien ha visto vaciarse todo, casi sabe de qué se llena todo.
 * He who has seen everything empty itself is close to knowing what everything is filled with.

 * Las pequeñeces son lo eterno, y lo demás. todo lo demás, lo breve, lo muy breve
 * The little things are what is eternal, and the rest, all the rest, is brevity, extreme brevity.

 * Desde hace mil años me pregunto: ¿qué haré ahora? Y aún no necesito responderme.
 * For a thousand years I have been asking myself, "what will I do now?" And still I need not answer.

 * Mi pobreza no es total: falto yo.
 * My poverty is not complete: it lacks me.

 * Dios le ha dado mucho al hombre; pero el hombre quisiera algo del hombre.
 * God has given a great deal to man, but man would like something from man.

 * Todo es como los ríos, obra de las pendientes.
 * Everything is like the rivers: the work of the slopes.

 * Desde que yo solo sé qué me sucede, no me sucede nada.
 * Ever since I alone have been aware of what happens to me, nothing happens to me.

 * El hombre, cuando sabe que es una cosa cómica, no ríe.
 * Man, when he realizes that he is an object of comedy, does not laugh.

 * Se aprende a no necesitar, necesitando.
 * One learns not to need by needing.

 * Si no creyera que el sol me mira un poco, no lo miraría.
 * If I didn’t think the sun looked at me a little, I wouldn’t look at it.

 * Todo juguete tiene derecho a romperse.
 * Every toy has the right to break.

 * Lleve cada uno su culpa y no habrá culpables.
 * Let each carry their own guilt and there will be no guilty ones.

 * Si yo te diera la vida, ¿qué podría darte?
 * You tell yourself a dream, always. And when do you dream it?

 * Hablo pensando que no debiera hablar: así hablo.
 * I talk thinking that I shouldn't talk: that is how I talk.

 * Temer no humilla tanto como ser temido.
 * It is less degrading to fear than to be feared.

 * En lo superficial, si no eres superficial, necesitas que te lleve de la mano alguien superficial.
 * Among the superficial, if you are not one of them, one of them has to lead you by the hand.

 * No tienes nada y me darías un mundo. Te debo un mundo.
 * You have nothing and you would give me a world. I owe you a world.

 * You’ll find the distance that separates you from them, by joining them.
 * You will find the distance that separates you from them by joining them.

 * Tu dolor es tan grande que no debiera dolerte.
 * Your hurt is so great that it shouldn’t hurt you.

 * Situado en alguna nebulosa lejana hago lo que hago, para que el equilibrio universal de que soy parte no pierda el equilibrio.
 * Located in some distant nebula I do what I do so that the universal balance I’m a part of won’t lose its balance.

 * A veces hallo tan grande a la miseria que temo necesitar de ella.
 * Sometimes I find that misery is so vast that I am afraid of needing it.

 * Cuanto sé no me sirve ni para saberlo.
 * All I know does not even help me to know it.

 * Entra una nueva pena y las viejas penas de la casa la reciben calladas, no muertas.
 * A new pain enters and the old pains of the household receive it with their silence, not with their death.

 * He llegado a un paso de todo. Y aquí me quedo, lejos de todo, un paso.
 * I have come one step away from everything and here I stay, far from everything, one step away.

 * Sí, me ocupo de mí, pero he olvidado qué significa ocuparme de mí.
 * Yes, I am preoccupied with myself. But I've forgotten what that means.

 * Todo se había quedado sin engaño, esa vez. Y esa vez tuve miedo de todo.
 * Everything had been stripped of deceptions, that time. And that time I was afraid of everything.

 * El dolor no nos sigue: camina adelante.
 * Pain doesn’t follow us; it walks up front.

 * El mal no lo hacen todos, pero acusa a todos.
 * Not everyone does evil, but everyone stands accused.

 * Si no has de cambiar de ruta, ¿por qué has de cambiar de guía?
 * If you don’t have to change routes, why should you change guides?

 * Nadie entiende que lo has dado todo. Debes dar más.
 * No one understands that you have given everything. You must give more.

 * Cualquiera podría aniquilar lo infinito en un instante.
 * Anyone could annihilate the infinite in an instant.

 * Has venido a este mundo que no entiende nada sin palabras, casi sin palabras.
 * Almost without words, you’ve come to this world, which understands nothing without words.

 * La confesión de uno humilla a todos.
 * The confession of one humbles all.

 * Cuanto no puede ser, casi siempre es un reproche a cuanto puede ser.
 * All that can’t be is almost always a reproach against what can be.

 * Sí, me apartaré. Prefiero lamentarme de tu ausencia que de ti.
 * Yes, I will go. I would rather grieve over your absence than over you.

 * Las sombras: unas ocultan, otras descubren.
 * The shadows: some hide, others reveal.

 * No sale de lo malo quien está en él, porque teme encontrarse... con lo malo.
 * One who dwells in evil doesn’t leave, for fear of running into...evil.

 * Cuando no se quiere lo imposible, no se quiere.
 * When one does not love the impossible, one does not love anything.

 * Todo es un poco de oscuridad, hasta la misma luz.
 * Everything is a bit of darkness, even light itself.

 * Cada vez que me despierto, comprendo que es fácil ser nada.
 * Every time I wake, I understand how easy it is to be nothing.

 * Mi padre, al irse, regaló medio siglo a mi niñez.
 * My father, when he went, made my childhood a gift of half century.

 * Se me abre una puerta, entro y me hallo con cien puertas cerradas.
 * A door opens to me. I go in and am faced with a hundred closed doors.

 * Cuando lo superficial me cansa, me cansa tanto, que para descansar necesito un abismo.
 * When the superficial wearies me, it wearies me so much that I need an abyss in order to rest.

 * Cien hombres, juntos, son la centésima parte de un hombre.
 * A hundred men together are the hundredth part of a man.

 * Palabras que me dijeron en otros tiempos, las oigo hoy.
 * Words that they said to me at other times, I hear now.

 * Quise alcanzar lo derecho por sendas derechas. Y así comencé a vivir equivocado.
 * I wanted to reach what was right on the right paths. And so I began to live mistaken.

 * No podrá esperarte más. Porque has llegado.
 * It won’t be able to wait for you any longer. Because you have arrived.

 * Se apiadan de las víctimas, las víctimas.
 * Victims take pity on victims.

 * El hombre vive midiendo, y no es medida de nada. Ni de sí mismo.
 * Man lives measuring, and he’s the measure of nothing. Not even of himself.

 * El niño muestra su juguete, el hombre lo esconde.
 * A child shows his toy, a man hides his.

 * Mi yo ha ido alejándose de mí. Hoy es mi más lejano tú.
 * My self has been moving away from me. Today it is my farthest you.

 * La flor que tienes en tus manos ha nacido hoy y ya tiene tu edad.
 * The flower you hold in your hands was born today and is already your age.

 * El hombre, cuando no se lamenta, casi no existe.
 * Man, when he does not grieve, hardly exists.

 * Más llanto que llorar es ver llorar.
 * More tearful than crying is seeing someone cry.

 * Sólo algunos llegan a nada, porque el trayecto es largo.
 * Only a few arrive at nothing, because the road is long.

 * La pena humana, durmiendo, no tiene forma. Si la despiertan, toma la forma de quien la despierta,
 * Human suffering, while it is asleep, is shapeless. If it is wakened it takes the form of the waker.

 * Algunas cosas se hacen tan nuestras que las olvidamos.
 * Some things become so completely our own that we forget them.

 * Todo lo que llevo atado en mí, se halla suelto, en cualquier parte.
 * Everything that I carry tied up in me, can be found anywhere else, freed.

 * El mal de no creer es creer un poco.
 * Not believing has a sickness which is believing a little.

 * El hombre no va a ninguna parte. Todo viene al hombre, como el mañana.
 * Man goes nowhere, everything comes to man like tomorrow.

 * La tierra tiene lo que tú levantas de la tierra. Nada más tiene.
 * The earth has what you raise off the earth. It has nothing more.

 * Y si llegaras a hombre, ¿a qué más podrías llegar?
 * And if you became man, what else could you become?

 * No hallé como quien ser, en ninguno. Y me quedé, así: como ninguno.
 * In no one did I find who I should be like. And I stayed like that: like no one.

 * Sé que tienes nada. Por ello te pido todo. Para que tengas todo.
 * I know that you have nothing. That is why I ask you for everything. So that you will have everything.

 * Cuando no sea más nada, ¿no seré más nada? ¡Cómo quisiera no ser más nada cuando no sea más nada!
 * When I’m nothing more, won’t I be more nothing? How I’d like not to be more nothing when I’m nothing more!

 * Si no nos dieran nada quienes no nos deben nada, !pobres de nosotros!
 * If those who owe us nothing gave us nothing, how poor we would be!

 * Un poco de ingenuidad nunca se aparta de mí. Y es ella la que me protege.
 * A little candor never leaves me. It is what protects me.

 * Es más fácil levantar la caída que no dejarla caer. Déjala caer y la levantarás.
 * It is easier to pick it up fallen than not to let it fall. Let it fall and you will pick it up.

 * No usar defectos. no significa no tenerlos.
 * Not using faults does not mean one does not have them.

 * Me hicieron de cien años algunos minutos que se quedaron conmigo, no cien años.
 * Out of hundred years, a few moments were made that stayed with me, not a hundred years.

 * Cuando no ando en las nubes, ando como perdido.
 * When I do not walk in the clouds I walk as though I were lost.

 * Donde se lamentan todos, no se oyen lamentos.
 * When everyone sorrows, no one hears the sorrows.

 * Trátame como debes tratarme, no como merezco ser tratado.
 * Treat me as you should treat me, not as I should be treated.

 * Yo no estoy conforme de ti. Pero si tú tampoco estás conforme de ti, yo estoy conforme de ti.
 * I do not agree with you, but if you do not agree with yourself either, then I agree with you.

 * No hables mal de tus males a nadie, que hay culpas de tus males en todos.
 * Do not speak harshly of your misfortunes to anyone, for everyone is partly to blame.

 * Siempre busco alguna luz y siempre en la noche y no alumbrado por ninguna luz.
 * I always search for some light and always at night and never illuminated by any light.

 * Para poder alcanzar ciertas alturas, no las bajo: las levanto más.
 * In order to reach some heights, I don’t lower them: I raise them higher.

 * Mis cosas totalmente perdidas son aquellas que, al perderlas yo, no las encuentran otros.
 * The things I lose completely are those which, lost by me, are not found by others.

 * Se daba a todos sin seguir a nadie. Y en aquel mundo, donde casi todos siguen a todos sin darse a nadie.
 * He always gave himself to everyone without following anyone. And in that world, where almost everyone follows everyone without giving themselves to anyone.

 * Una cosa sana no respira.
 * Nothing that is complete breathes.

 * Que tuve todo lo sé, no por lo que tuve. Lo sé porque después no tuve más.
 * I know I had everything, but not because I had it. I know because afterwards I had nothing else.

 * Cuando todo está hecho, las mañanas son tristes.
 * When everything is done, the mornings are sad.

 * El verdadero “está bien” me lo digo en el suelo, caído.
 * I tell myself the real “it’s fine” on the ground, having fallen.

 * Hasta las flores, para emanar sus perfumes, han menester morirse un poco.
 * Even flowers, to exhale their perfume, must die a little.

 * Mi voz me dice: “Así es todo”. Y el eco de mi voz me dice: “Así eres tú”.
 * My voice tells me: “That’s how it all is.” And the echo of my voice tells me: “That’s how you are.”

 * Después de tanto huir de las cosas hechas, me he encontrado yo mismo una cosa hecha. Y sigo huyendo de las cosas hechas.
 * After all this running away from finished things, I ran into myself as a finished thing. And I’m still running away from finished things.

 * Éramos yo y el mar. Y el mar estaba solo y solo yo. Uno de los dos faltaba.
 * It was the sea and I. And the sea was alone and I was alone. One of the two was missing.

 * Cuántos, cansados de mentir, se suicidan en cualquier verdad.
 * How many, tired of lying, commit suicide into any truth.

 * Y seguiré eliminando las palabras malas que puse en mi todo, aunque mi todo se quede sin palabras.
 * And I’ll go on erasing the faulty words I put in my whole, even if my whole is left without words.

 * Casi no he tocado el barro y soy de barro.
 * I have hardly touched the clay and I am made of it.

 * Vengo de morirme, no de haber nacido. De haber nacido me voy.
 * I come from dying, not from having been born. From having been born I am going.

 * El misterio apacigua mis ojos, no los ciega.
 * The mystery brings peace to my eyes, not blindness.

 * El lamentarme todos y de todo, creciendo, ha illegado a ser el lamentarme de mí mismo a mí mismo. Y crece todavía.
 * The grieving for everyone and about everything has become a grieving for myself, to myself. And it is still growing.

 * Cuando tu dolor es un poco mayor que mi dolor, me siento un poco cruel.
 * When your suffering is a little greater than my suffering, I feel like I am a little cruel.

 * Quiero por lo que quise, y lo que quise, no volvería a quererlo.
 * I love for the sake of what I have loved, and what I have loved I would not go back to loving.

 * Cuando creo que la piedra es piedra, que la nube es nube, me hallo es un estado de inconsciencia.
 * When I believe a stone is a stone and a cloud a cloud, I am in a state of unconsciousness.

 * Tenemos un mundo para cada uno, pero no tenemos un mundo para todos.
 * We have a world for each, but we don’t have a world for all.

 * Viéndome, me pregunto: ¿qué pretenden verse los demás?
 * When I see myself, I wonder: what do others try to see in themselves?

 * A veces creo que no existe todo lo que veo. Porque todo lo que veo es todo lo que vi. Y todo lo que vi no existe.
 * Sometimes I think that everything I see does not exist. Because everything I see is what I saw, and everything I saw does not exist.

 * Hay dolores que han perdido la memoria y no recuerdan por qué son dolores.
 * There are sufferings that have lost their memory and do not remember why they are suffering.

 * El mal, débil, me agita; fuerte, me calma.
 * Injury, when it is slight, upsets me; when it is strong, it calms me.

 * Todos los soles se esfuerzan en encender tu llama y un microbio la extingue.
 * All the suns labor to kindle your flame and a microbe puts it out.

 * En plena luz no somos ni una sombra.
 * In full light we are not even a shadow.

 * El matador de almas no mata cien almas; mata una alma sola, cien veces.
 * The killer of souls does not kill a hundred souls. He kills his own soul a hundred times.

 * Estoy tan poco en mí, que lo que hacen de mí, casi no me interesa.
 * I am in myself so little that what they do with me scarcely interests me.

 * Te quireo como eres, pero no me digas cómo eres.
 * I love you as you are, but do not tell me how that is.

 * Cerca de mí no hay más que lejanías.
 * Near me, nothing but distances.

 * Mis culpas no irán a otras manos por mi culpa. No quiero otra culpa en mis manos.
 * My faults will not pass into other hands through any fault of mine. I do not want another fault on my hands.

 * El corazón es un infinito de pesadísimas cadenas, encadenando puñaditos de aire.
 * The heart is an infinity of massive chains, chaining little handfuls of air.

 * Otra vez mno quisiera nada. Ni una madre quisiera otra vez.
 * I do not want anything over again. Not even a mother.

 * La pérdida de una cosa nos afecta hasta hasta no perderla toda.
 * The loss of a thing affects us until we have lost it altogether.

 * El frío es un buen consejero, pero es frío.
 * The cold is a good counselor, but it is cold.

 * Te asusta el vacío, ¡y abres más los ojos!
 * The void terrifies you, and you open your eyes wider!

 * El hombre ciego lleva una estrella sobre sus hombros,
 * The blind man carries a star on his shoulders.

 * Sé que anduve de lo antes breve a lo después eterno de todas las cosas, pero no sé cómo.
 * I know that I went from the brief before to the eternal afterward of everything, but I do not know how.

 * Mi dignidad le pide a quien no me hace daño que no me haga daño, y a quien me hace daño no le pide nada.
 * My dignity asks him who does me no harm to do me no harm. Of him who harms me it asks nothing.

 * Cuanto he perdido lo hallo a cada paso y me recuerda que lo he perdido.
 * All that I have lost I find at every step and remember that I have lost it.

 * Mis partículas de tiempo juegan con la eternidad.
 * My bits of time play with eternity.

 * Mi última creencia es sufrir. Y comienzo a creer que no sufro.
 * My final belief is suffering. And I begin to believe that I do not suffer.

 * Si me olvidase de lo que no he sido, me olvidaría de mí.
 * If I forgot what I have not been, I would forget myself.

 * Cuando me parece que escuchas mis palabras, me parecen tuyas mis palabres y escucho mis palabras.
 * When you seem to be listening to my words, they are your words, with me listening.

 * Cuando ya nada me quede, no pediré más nada.
 * When I have nothing left, I will ask for no more.

 * El alma de todos sólo es el alma de cada uno.
 * The soul of all is only the soul of each one.

 * Me es más fácil ver todas las cosas como una cosa sola, que ver una cosa como una cosa sola.
 * It is easier for me to see everything as one thing than to see one thing as one thing.

 * Todo lo que cambia, donde cambia, deja detrás de sí un aibsmo.
 * Everything that changes, where it changes, leaves behind it an abyss.

 * Eres un fantoche, pero en las manos de lo infinito, que tal vez son tus manos.
 * You are a puppet, but in the hands of the infinite, which may be your own.

 * El hombre es débil y cuando ejerce la profesíon de fuerte es más débil.
 * Man is weak and when he makes strength his profession he is even weaker.

 * Lo que no quiero, al arrojarlo de mis manos, va a caer al alcance de mis manos.
 * When I throw away what I don't want, it will fall within reach.

 * Ellos también son como yo, me digo. Y así me defiendo de ellos. Y así me defiendo de mí.
 * They are like me, I tell myself. And in that way I protect myself against them. And in that way I protect myself against myself.

 * Mis muertos siguen sufriendo el dolor de la vida en mí.
 * My dead go on suffering in me the pain of living.

 * Cuando no creo en nada, no quisiera encontrarme contigo, cuando no crees en nada.
 * When I believe in nothing, I do not want to meet you when you believe in nothing.

 * A veces creo el mal es todo y que el bien es sólo un bello deseo del mal.
 * Sometimes I believe that evil is everything, and that good is only a beautiful desire for evil.

 * Como sólo me preparo para lo que debiera sucederme, no me hallo preparado para lo que me sucede. Nunca.
 * Since I only prepare for what ought to happen to me, I am never prepared for what does. Never.

 * Si pudieras salir de tus penas y salieras de tus penas, ¿sabrías adonde ir fuera de tus penas?
 * If you could escape your sufferings and did so, where would you go outside of them?

 * Si yo fuera quien se conduce a sí mismo, no iría por la senda que conduce a morir.
 * If I were someone who led himself, I would not take the path that leads to death.

 * Lo que sé lo soporto con lo que no sé.
 * I hold up what I know with what I do not know.

 * Mi nombre, más que llamarme, me recuerda mi nombre.
 * My name, far more than it names me, reminds me of my name.

 * Cuando rompo algunas de las cadenas que me encadenan, siento que me disminuyo.
 * When I break any of the chains that bind me, I feel that I make myself smaller.

 * Llevo mis manos vacía, por lo que hubo en mis manos.
 * I keep my hands empty for the sake of what I have had in them.

 * Mientras creemos tener algún valor, nos hacemos daño.
 * As long as we think we are worth something, we wrong ourselves.

 * ¿Y para qué debo arrepentirme de lo que he hecho, si no puedo dejar de hacer lo que hago, que es lo que he hecho?
 * And why should I regret what I have done, when I cannot help doing what I do, which is what I have done?

 * No llora quien no encuentra uns fuente donde verter su llanto.
 * Those who do not find a fountain through which to pour their tears, do not cry.

 * Si yo diera la vida, ¿qué podría darte?
 * If I were to give you life, what else could I give you?

 * El mal que no he hecho, ¡cuánto mal ha hecho!
 * The harm that I have not done, what harm it has done!

 * Yo le pediría algo más a este mundo, si tuviese algo más este mundo.
 * I would ask something more of this world, if it had something more.

 * La pobreza ajena me basta para sentirme pobre; la mía no me basta.
 * My neighbor's poverty makes me feel poor; my own does not.

 * Vemos por algo que nos ilumina; por algo que no vemos.
 * We see by means of something which illumines us, which we do not see.

 * Quien ha visto con los ojos abiertos, puede volver a ver, pero con los ojos cerrados.
 * Who has seen with their eyes open can see again, but with the eyes closed.

 * Lo antes que yo y lo después que yo casi se han unido, casi son uno solo, casi se han quedado sin yo.
 * That which came before me and that which comes after me have almost come together, they have almost become one thing, they have have almost been left without me.

 * En el sueño eterno, la eternidad es lo mismo que un instante. Quizá yo vuelva dentro de un instante.
 * In the eternal dream, eternity is the same as an instant. Maybe I will come back in an instant.

 * Lo que me digo, ¿quién lo dice?
 * What I say to myself - who says it? Who does he say it to?

 * Estoy en el ayer, en el hoy. ¿Y en mañana? En el mañana estuve.
 * I am in yesterday, today. And tomorrow? In tomorrow I was.

 * Todo es nada, pero después, Después de haberlo sufrido todo.
 * Everything is nothing, but afterwards. After having suffered everything.

 * Cuando tú y la verdad me hablan, no escucho a la verdad. Te escucho a ti.
 * When you and the truth speak to me, I do not listen to the truth. I listen to you.

 * Hieres y volverás a herir. Porque hieres y te apartas. No acompañas a la herida.
 * You wound and you will wound again. Because you wound and then you go away. You do not stay with the wound.

 * Prefiero al mejor de los refugios las puertas de cualquier refugio.
 * To the best of refuges I prefer their doorways.

 * Lo importante y lo no importante no son iguales sólo en sus comienzos.
 * The important and the unimportant are the same only at the start.

 * Pequeño es aquel que para mostrarse esconde.
 * He is small who hides in order to show himself.

 * Siempre me fue más fácil amar que elogiar.
 * It was always easier for me to love than to praise.

 * The deep in me is everything. But it is everything without me. Because everything that is deep, is only everything.

 * Convince me, but without convictions. Convictions no longer convince me.

 * Knowing how to die costs a lifetime.

 * We don’t forgive being as we are.

 * When I'm content with nothing is when I'm content with everything.

 * When I break any of the chains that bind me I feel that I make myself smaller.
 * Don’t speak to me. I want to be with you.

 * From what I awaited, came my habit of waiting.

 * Reason is lost reasoning.

 * There are those fallen who don’t get up so as not to fall again.

 * The deep, seen with depth, is surface.

 * What I did or didn't do, I think it's over now. And what I will or will not do, I think is also over.

 * If I think about what life is, I believe life is a miracle. And if I think about what a miracle is, I don’t believe in it.

 * I have found the most beautiful side of the flowers in the fallen flowers.

 * Love, when it fits inside a flower, is infinite.

 * One who walks from fire to fire dies from the cold.

 * If I were told that I have died or that I haven't been born, I wouldn't stop thinking about it.

 * And if nothing is repeated in the same way, all things are last things.

 * My God, I have almost never believed in you, and yet I have always loved you.

 * I live, to get out of what I live through.

 * When I say what I say it’s because what I say has overcome me.

 * The children whom nobody leads by the hand are the children who know they are children.

 * One man alone is too much for one man alone.

 * When I have ceased to exist, I won’t ever have existed.

 * Distances did nothing. It’s all here.

title: Antonio Porchia


text:
Georg Cantor

Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor (3 March 1845 – 6 January 1918) was a Russian-born German mathematician and philosopher of Danish and Austrian descent, most famous as the creator of set theory, and of Cantor's theorem which implies the existence of an "infinity of infinities."

Quotes

 * In re mathematica ars proponendi quaestionem pluris facienda est quam solvendi.
 * In mathematics the art of asking questions is more valuable than solving problems.
 * Doctoral thesis (1867); variant translation: In mathematics the art of proposing a question must be held of higher value than solving it.

 * I realize that in this undertaking I place myself in a certain opposition to views widely held concerning the mathematical infinite and to opinions frequently defended on the nature of numbers.
 * Grundlagen einer allgemeinen Mannigfaltigkeitslehre [Foundations of a General Theory of Aggregates] (1883)

 * Had Mittag-Leffler had his way, I should have to wait until the year 1984, which to me seemed too great a demand!
 * Letter (1885), written after Gösta Mittag-Leffler persuaded him to withdraw a submission to Mittag-Leffler's journal Acta Mathematica, telling him it was "about one hundred years too soon."

 * The old and oft-repeated proposition "Totum est majus sua parte" [the whole is larger than the part] may be applied without proof only in the case of entities that are based upon whole and part; then and only then is it an undeniable consequence of the concepts "totum" and "pars". Unfortunately, however, this "axiom" is used innumerably often without any basis and in neglect of the necessary distinction between "reality" and "quantity", on the one hand, and "number" and "set", on the other, precisely in the sense in which it is generally false.
 * "Über unendliche, lineare Punktmannigfaltigkeiten" in Mathematische Annalen 20 (1882) Quoted in "Cantor's Grundlagen and the paradoxes of Set Theory" by William W. Tait

 * There is no doubt that we cannot do without variable quantities in the sense of the potential infinite. But from this very fact the necessity of the actual infinite can be demonstrated.
 * "Über die verschiedenen Ansichten in Bezug auf die actualunendlichen Zahlen" ["Over the different views with regard to the actual infinite numbers"] - Bihand Till Koniglen Svenska Vetenskaps Akademiens Handigar (1886)

 * In order for there to be a variable quantity in some mathematical study, the domain of its variability must strictly speaking be known beforehand through a definition. However, this domain cannot itself be something variable, since otherwise each fixed support for the study would collapse. Thus this domain is a definite, actually infinite set of values. Hence each potential infinite, if it is rigorously applicable mathematically, presupposes an actual infinite.
 * "Über die verschiedenen Ansichten in Bezug auf die actualunendlichen Zahlen" ["Over the different views with regard to the actual infinite numbers"] - Bihand Till Koniglen Svenska Vetenskaps Akademiens Handigar (1886)

 * The potential infinite means nothing other than an undetermined, variable quantity, always remaining finite, which has to assume values that either become smaller than any finite limit no matter how small, or greater than any finite limit no matter how great.
 * "Mitteilungen" (1887-8)

 * Er ist aber in Kopenhagen geboren, von israelitischen Eltern, die der dortigen portugisischen Judengemeinde.
 * However, he was born in Copenhagen, of Jewish parents, of the Portuguese Jewish community there.
 * Of his father. In a letter written by Georg Cantor to Paul Tannery in 1896 (Paul Tannery, Memoires Scientifique 13 Correspondance, Gauthier-Villars, Paris, 1934, p. 306)

 * The totality of all alephs cannot be conceived as a determinate, well-defined, and also a finished set. This is the punctum saliens, and I venture to say that this completely certain theorem, provable rigorously from the definition of the totality of all alephs, is the most important and noblest theorem of set theory. One must only understand the expression "finished" correctly. I say of a set that it can be thought of as finished (and call such a set, if it contains infinitely many elements, "transfinite" or "suprafinite") if it is possible without contradiction (as can be done with finite sets) to think of all its elements as existing together, and to think of the set itself as a compounded thing for itself; or (in other words) if it is possible to imagine the set as actually existing with the totality of its elements.
 * Letter to David Hilbert (2 October 1897)

 * Every transfinite consistent multiplicity, that is, every transfinite set, must have a definite aleph as its cardinal number.
 * Letter to Richard Dedekind (1899), as translated in From Frege to Gödel : A Source Book in Mathematical Logic, 1879-1931 (1967) by Jean Van Heijenoort, p. 117

 * I have never proceeded from any Genus supremum of the actual infinite. Quite the contrary, I have rigorously proved that there is absolutely no Genus supremum of the actual infinite. What surpasses all that is finite and transfinite is no Genus; it is the single, completely individual unity in which everything is included, which includes the Absolute, incomprehensible to the human understanding. This is the Actus Purissimus, which by many is called God. I am so in favor of the actual infinite that instead of admitting that Nature abhors it, as is commonly said, I hold that Nature makes frequent use of it everywhere, in order to show more effectively the perfections of its Author. Thus I believe that there is no part of matter which is not — I do not say divisible — but actually divisible; and consequently the least particle ought to be considered as a world full of an infinity of different creatures.
 * As quoted in Out of the Mouths of Mathematicians : A Quotation Book for Philomaths (1993) by Rosemary Schmalz.

 * A set is a Many that allows itself to be thought of as a One.
 * As quoted in Infinity and the Mind (1995) by Rudy Rucker. ~ ISBN 0691001723

 * The fear of infinity is a form of myopia that destroys the possibility of seeing the actual infinite, even though it in its highest form has created and sustains us, and in its secondary transfinite forms occurs all around us and even inhabits our minds.
 * As quoted in Infinity and the Mind (1995) by Rudy Rucker.

 * The actual infinite arises in three contexts: first when it is realized in the most complete form, in a fully independent otherworldly being, in Deo, where I call it the Absolute Infinite or simply Absolute; second when it occurs in the contingent, created world; third when the mind grasps it in abstracto as a mathematical magnitude, number or order type.
 * As quoted in Mind Tools: The Five Levels of Mathematical Reality (1988) by Rudy Rucker. ~ ISBN 0395468108

 * That from the outset they expect or even impose all the properties of finite numbers upon the numbers in question, while on the other hand the infinite numbers, if they are to be considered in any form at all, must (in their contrast to the finite numbers) constitute an entirely new kind of number, whose nature is entirely dependent upon the nature of things and is an object of research, but not of our arbitrariness or prejudices.
 * Letter to Gustac Enestrom, as quoted in Georg Cantor : His Mathematics and Philosophy of the Infinite (1990) by Joseph Warren Dauben ~ ISBN 0691024472

 * This view [of the infinite], which I consider to be the sole correct one, is held by only a few. While possibly I am the very first in history to take this position so explicitly, with all of its logical consequences, I know for sure that I shall not be the last!
 * As quoted in Journey Through Genius (1990) by William Dunham ~ ISBN 0471500305

 * My theory stands as firm as a rock; every arrow directed against it will return quickly to its archer. How do I know this? Because I have studied it from all sides for many years; because I have examined all objections which have ever been made against the infinite numbers; and above all because I have followed its roots, so to speak, to the first infallible cause of all created things.
 * As quoted in Journey Through Genius (1990) by William Dunham

 * What I assert and believe to have demonstrated in this and earlier works is that following the finite there is a transfinite (which one could also call the supra-finite), that is an unbounded ascending ladder of definite modes, which by their nature are not finite but infinite, but which just like the finite can be determined by well-defined and distinguishable numbers.
 * As quoted in Understanding the Infinite (1994) by Shaughan Lavine ~ ISBN 0674921178

 * The transfinite numbers are in a certain sense themselves new irrationalities and in fact in my opinion the best method of defining the finite irrational numbers is wholly dissimilar to, and I might even say in principle the same as, my method described above of introducing transfinite numbers. One can say unconditionally: the transfinite numbers stand or fall with the finite irrational numbers; they are like each other in their innermost being; for the former like the latter are definite delimited forms or modifications of the actual infinite.
 * As quoted in Understanding the Infinite (1994) by Shaughan Lavine

 * I entertain no doubts as to the truths of the transfinites, which I recognized with God’s help and which, in their diversity, I have studied for more than twenty years; every year, and almost every day brings me further in this science.
 * As quoted in Modern Mathematicians, (1995) by Harry Henderson. ~ ISBN 0816032351

From Kant to Hilbert (1996)

 * Quotes of Cantor in From Kant to Hilbert : A Source Book in the Foundations of Mathematics (1996) by William Bragg Ewald ~ ISBN 0198505361

 * As for the mathematical infinite, to the extent that it has found a justified application in science and contributed to its usefulness, it seems to me that it has hitherto appeared principally in the role of a variable quantity, which either grows beyond all bounds or diminishes to any desired minuteness, but always remains finite. I call this the improper infinite [das Uneigentlich-unendliche].

 * Infinity, in its first form (the improper-infinite) presents itself as a variable finite [veranderliches Endliches]; in the other form (which I call the proper infinite [Eigentlich-unendliche]) it appears as a thoroughly determinate [bestimmtes] infinite.

 * What I declare and believe to have demonstrated in this work as well as in earlier papers is that following the finite there is a transfinite (transfinitum)--which might also be called supra-finite (suprafinitum), that is, there is an unlimited ascending ladder of modes, which in its nature is not finite but infinite, but which can be determined as can the finite by determinate, well-defined and distinguishable numbers.

 * Mathematics, in the development of its ideas, has only to take account of the immanent reality of its concepts and has absolutely no obligation to examine their transient reality.

 * Mathematics is in its development entirely free and is only bound in the self-evident respect that its concepts must both be consistent with each other, and also stand in exact relationships, ordered by definitions, to those concepts which have previously been introduced and are already at hand and established. In particular, in the introduction of new numbers, it is only obligated to give definitions of them which will bestow such a determinacy and, in certain circumstances, such a relationship to the other numbers that they can in any given instance be precisely distinguished. As soon as a number satisfies all these conditions, it can and must be regarded in mathematics as existent and real.

 * The essence of mathematics lies entirely in its freedom.
 * Variant translation: The essence of mathematics is in its freedom.

 * If there is some determinate succession of defined whole real numbers, among which there exists no greatest, on the basis of this second principle of generation a new number is obtained which is regarded as the limit of those numbers, i.e. is defined as the next greater number than all of them.

Quotes about Cantor

 * No one shall expel us from the Paradise that Cantor has created.
 * David Hilbert, in "Über das Unendliche" [On the Infinite], in Mathematische Annalen 95 (1925)
 * Variant translation: No one shall expel us from the Paradise that Cantor has created for us.

 * In 1874 the German mathematician Georg Cantor made the startling discovery that there are more irrational numbers than rational ones, and more transcendental numbers than algebraic ones. In other words, rather than being oddities, most real numbers are irrational; and among irrational numbers, most are transcendental.
 * , e: The Story of a Number (1994)

 * Why was Cantor so vehemently opposed to infinitesimals? In his valuable essay, "The Metaphysics of the Calculus," Abraham Robinson suggests that Cantor already had enough problems trying to defend transfinite numbers. It seems likely that, consciously or otherwise, Cantor deemed it politically wise to go along with orthodox mathematicians on the question of infinitesimals. Cantor's stance might be compared to that of a pro-marijuana Congressional candidate who advocates harsh penalties for the sale or use of heroin.
 * Rudy Rucker, in Infinity and the Mind (2005), p. 80

 * After being relegated to an obscure mid-tier university, blocked from leading journals and openly mocked by his peers, including his former mentor, the late 19th century German mathematician found refuge for his groundbreaking work on infinities in, of all places, the Roman Catholic Church … Catholic theologians welcomed Cantor's ideas, which provided a workable way of understanding mathematical infinities, as evidence that humans could grasp the infinite and could also, therefore, have a greater understanding of God, himself infinite. What a welcome relief this must have been to the chronically depressed Cantor! As John D. Barrow writes in The Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless, Cantor "started to tell his friends that he had not been the inventor of the ideas about infinity that he had published. He was merely a mouthpiece, inspired by God to communicate parts of the mind of God to everyone else."
 * Jenn Shreve, in "What we definitely know about endlessly possible", a review of The Infinite Book : A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless by John D. Barrow

 * I discovered the works of Euler and my perception of the nature of mathematics underwent a dramatic transformation. I was de-Bourbakized, stopped believing in sets, and was expelled from the Cantorian paradise.
 * Alexander Stepanov, in "Bjarne Stroustrup: Evolving a language in and for the real world: C++ 1991-2006" in ACM HOPL-III (June 2007)

title: Georg Cantor


text: User:MegamanZero/Talk Template

title: User:MegamanZero/Talk Template