June 26, 2015

If it is clumsy...

The traditional mathematician recognizes and appreciates mathematical elegance when he sees it. I propose to go one step further, and to consider elegance an essential ingredient of mathematics: if it is clumsy, it is not mathematics. -- Edsger Dijkstra

Photograph of Edsger Dijkstra
Edsger Dijkstra

June 19, 2015

Things people know that ain't so...

I could never accept findings based almost exclusively on mathematics. It ain't ignorance that causes all the trouble in this world.  It's the things people know that ain't so. -- Edwin Armstrong






June 12, 2015

One of the most difficult branches of applied mathematics...

Programming is one of the most difficult branches of applied mathematics; the poorer mathematicians had better remain pure mathematicians. -- Edsger Dijkstra

Photograph of Edsger Dijkstra
Edsger Dijkstra

June 5, 2015

No such thing...

There should be no such thing as boring mathematics. -- Edsger Dijkstra


Edsger Dijkstra