James Joseph Sylvester

James Joseph Sylvester

Mathematician

James Joseph Sylvester was a prominent mathematician known for his contributions to algebra and matrix theory, significantly impacting modern mathematics.

Math Ideas Law Science Life Nature
Born
April 3, 1814
Died
January 15, 1887
Quotes
22
Rank
#3332

About James Joseph Sylvester

James Joseph Sylvester — Life and Legacy

James Joseph Sylvester was a distinguished mathematician whose work in algebra and matrix theory has left a lasting legacy in the field of mathematics. Born in 1814, he made significant strides in understanding the properties of matrices and their applications, which are foundational to modern mathematical theory. Sylvester's belief that mathematics is a universal language is evident in his assertion that it reveals the inherent order of nature, a perspective that continues to resonate in mathematical circles today. His key ideas often revolved around the importance of creativity in mathematics. Sylvester famously stated that 'mathematics is the music of reason,' reflecting his view that mathematical reasoning is an art form that requires both logic and imagination. This notion challenges the perception of mathematics as merely a set of rigid rules, instead promoting it as a dynamic field that thrives on innovative thought. Sylvester's work in invariant theory was particularly groundbreaking, as it provided essential tools for understanding symmetry in mathematics. His contributions not only advanced the field but also inspired future generations of mathematicians to explore the depths of algebraic structures. Today, his quotes and ideas continue to inspire those who seek to understand the beauty and complexity of mathematics.

Quote collection

James Joseph Sylvester quotes (page 1 of 2)

22 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.

James Joseph Sylvester Mathematician
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"The world of ideas which it [mathematics] discloses or illuminates, the contemplation of divine beauty and order which it induces, the harmonious connexion of its parts, the infinite hierarchy and absolute evidence of the truths with which it is concerned, these, and such like, are the surest grounds of the title of mathematics to human regard, and would remain unimpeached and unimpaired were the plan of the universe unrolled like a map at our feet, and the mind of man qualified to take in the whole scheme of creation at a glance."

Beauty Men Order
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James Joseph Sylvester Mathematician
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"May not music be described as the mathematics of the sense, mathematics as music of the reason? The musician feels mathematics, the mathematician thinks music: music the dream, mathematics the working life."

Music Dream Thinking
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"If I were asked to name, in one word, the pole star round which the mathematical firmament revolves, the central idea which pervades the whole corpus of mathematical doctrine, I should point to Continuity as contained in our notions of space, and say, it is this, it is this!"

Stars Names Ideas
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"The mathematician lives long and lives young; the wings of his soul do not early drop off, nor do its pores become clogged with the earthy particles blown from the dusty highways of vulgar life."

Life Wings Long
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"I know, indeed, and can conceive of no pursuit so antagonistic to the cultivation of the oratorical faculty ... as the study of Mathematics. An eloquent mathematician must, from the nature of things, ever remain as rare a phenomenon as a talking fish, and it is certain that the more anyone gives himself up to the study of oratorical effect the less will he find himself in a fit state to mathematicize."

Nature Math Talking
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"The early study of Euclid made me a hater of geometry."

Study Euclid Made
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"There is no study in the world which brings into more harmonious action all the faculties of the mind than [mathematics], ... or, like this, seems to raise them, by successive steps of initiation, to higher and higher states of conscious intellectual being."

Math Mind Intellectual
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"The object of pure Physic[s] is the unfolding of the laws of the intelligible world; the object of pure Mathematic[s] that of unfolding the laws of human intelligence."

Law World Physics
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"A mathematical idea should not be petrified in a formalised axiomatic setting, but should be considered instead as flowing as a river."

Ideas Rivers Should
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"What a glorious title, Nature, a veritable stroke of genius to have hit upon. It is more than a cosmos, more than a universe. It includes the seen as well as the unseen, the possible as well as the actual, Nature and Nature's God, mind and matter. I am lost in admiration of the effulgent blaze of ideas it calls forth."

Nature Science Ideas
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"It seems to be expected of every pilgrim up the slopes of the mathematical Parnassus, that he will at some point or other of his journey sit down and invent a definite integral or two towards the increase of the common stock."

Journey Two Down And
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"So long as a man remains a gregarious and sociable being, he cannot cut himself off from the gratification of the instinct of imparting what he is learning, of propagating through others the ideas and impressions seething in his own brain, without stunting and atrophying his moral nature and drying up the surest sources of his future intellectual replenishment."

Learning Cutting Math
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"As the prerogative of Natural Science is to cultivate a taste for observation, so that of Mathematics is, almost from the starting point, to stimulate the faculty of invention."

Taste Mathematics Natural
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"Aspiring to these wide generalizations, the analysis of quadratic functions soars to a pitch from whence it may look proudly down on the feeble and vain attempts of geometry proper to rise to its level or to emulate it in its flights."

Analysis Looks Levels
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"The theory of ramification is one of pure colligation, for it takes no account of magnitude or position; geometrical lines are used, but these have no more real bearing on the matter than those employed in genealogical tables have in explaining the laws of procreation."

Real Math Law
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James Joseph Sylvester Mathematician
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"Time was when all the parts of the subject were dissevered, when algebra, geometry, and arithmetic either lived apart or kept up cold relations of acquaintance confined to occasional calls upon one another; but that is now at an end; they are drawn together and are constantly becoming more and more intimately related and connected by a thousand fresh ties, and we may confidently look forward to a time when they shall form but one body with one soul."

Life Math Ties
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"Number, place, and combination . . . the three intersecting but distinct spheres of thought to which all mathematical ideas admit of being referred."

Ideas Numbers Three
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"[Mathematics] unceasingly calls forth the faculties of observation and comparison; one of its principal weapons is induction: it has frequent recourse to trial and verification; and it affords a boundless scope for the exercise of the highest efforts of imagination and invention."

Exercise Imagination Effort
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"Surely with as good reason as had Archimedes to have the cylinder, cone and sphere engraved on his tombstone might our distinguished countrymen leave testamentary directions for the cubic eikosiheptagram to be engraved on theirs. Spirit of the Universe! wither are we drifting, and when, where, and how is all this to end?"

Tombstone Science Might
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