William Thurston Quotes

On this page you can find the TOP of William Thurston's best quotes! We hope you will find some sayings from Mathematician William Thurston's in our collection, which will inspire you to new achievements! There are currently 12 quotes on this page collected since October 30, 1946! Share our collection of quotes with your friends on social media so that they can find something to inspire them!
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  • Mathematics is an art of human understanding.

  • Math is really about the human mind, about how people can think effectively, and why curiosity is quite a good guide.

    Math   Thinking   People  
  • The real satisfaction from mathematics is in learning from others and sharing with others.

  • Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or algorithms: it is about understanding.

  • As one reads mathematics, one needs to have an active mind, asking questions, forming mental connections between the current topic and other ideas from other contexts, so as to develop a sense of the structure, not just familiarity with a particular tour through the structure.

    Teaching   Math   Ideas  
    William P. Thurston (2014). “Three-Dimensional Geometry and Topology, Volume 1”, p.9, Princeton University Press
  • You don't see what you're seeing until you see it but when you do see it, it lets you see many other things.

    Seeing  
  • Mathematicians can and do fill in gaps, correct errors, and supply more detail and more careful scholarship when they are called on or motivated to do so. Our system is quite good at producing reliable theorems that can be solidly backed up. It's just that the reliability does not primarily come from mathematicians formally checking formal arguments; it comes from mathematicians thinking carefully and critically about mathematical ideas.

    Math   Thinking   Errors  
  • I think mathematics is a vast territory. The outskirts of mathematics are the outskirts of mathematical civilization. There are certain subjects that people learn about and gather together. Then there is a sort of inevitable development in those fields. You get to the point where a certain theorem is bound to be proved, independent of any particular individual, because it is just in the path of development.

  • We humans have a wide range of abilities that help us perceive and analyze mathematical content. We perceive abstract notions not just through seeing but also by hearing, by feeling, by our sense of body motion and position. Our geometric and spatial skills are highly trainable, just as in other high-performance activities. In mathematics we can use the modules of our minds in flexible ways - even metaphorically. A whole-mind approach to mathematical thinking is vastly more effective than the common approach that manipulates only symbols.

    Math   Thinking   Skills  
  • The product of mathematics is clarity and understanding. Not theorems, by themselves. ... In short, mathematics only exists in a living community of mathematicians that spreads understanding and breathes life into ideas both old and new.

    Math   Ideas   Community  
  • Mathematics is much less formally complete and precise than computer programs.

  • Experience has shown repeatedly that a mathematical theory with a rich internal structure generally turns out to have significant implications for the understanding of the real world, often in ways no one could have envisioned before the theory was developed.

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We hope you have found the saying you were looking for in our collection! At the moment, we have collected 12 quotes from the Mathematician William Thurston, starting from October 30, 1946! We periodically replenish our collection so that visitors of our website can always find inspirational quotes by authors from all over the world! Come back to us again!
William Thurston quotes about:

William Thurston

  • Born: October 30, 1946
  • Died: August 21, 2012
  • Occupation: Mathematician