8+ Timothy Gowers Quotes And Sayings

Following is our list of the best Timothy Gowers quotes and sayings.

Although the prime numbers are rigidly determined, they somehow feel like experimental data. — Timothy Gowers

A typical mathematician does not actively try to be useful. Individual mathematicians are motivated primarily by a subtle mixture of ambition and intellectual curiosity, and not by a wish to benefit society, nevertheless, mathematics as a whole does benefit society. — Timothy Gowers

It is obvious that mathematics needs both sorts of mathematicians, theory-builders and problem-solvers. — Timothy Gowers

... the atlas is a manifold. This is a typical mathematician's use of the word "is", and should not be confused with the normal use. — Timothy Gowers

Moreover, if one selects a problem, works on it in isolation for a few years and finally solves it, there is a danger, unless the problem is very famous, that it will no longer be regarded as all that significant. — Timothy Gowers

What a mathematical proof actually does is show that certain conclusions, such as the irrationality of , follow from certain premises, such as the principle of mathematical induction. The validity of these premises is an entirely independent matter which can safely be left to philosophers. — Timothy Gowers

Here is something Category-Theorists like: it is trivial, but not trivially trivial. — Timothy Gowers

This attitude [the abstract method in mathematics] can be encapsulated in the following slogan: a mathematical object is what it does. — Timothy Gowers