Discovery is the privilege of the child: the child who has no fear of being once again wrong, of looking like an idiot, of not being serious, of not doing things like everyone else.
Alexander GrothendieckRead
The introduction of the cipher 0 or the group concept was general nonsense too, and mathematics was more or less stagnating for thousands of years because nobody was around to take such childish steps.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The progress of mathematics was hindered by a lack of innovative ideas and concepts, likening early mathematical developments to childish endeavors.
Alexander Grothendieck reflects on the historical stagnation in mathematics, attributing it to the absence of creativity in introducing essential concepts like the cipher 0 and group theory. He suggests that foundational ideas, which may seem trivial or childish, are crucial for the advancement of the field, emphasizing that significant progress often requires bold and innovative thinking.
Themes
MathematicsInnovationProgressCreativityHistory
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about the history of mathematics, one could use this quote to illustrate the importance of foundational concepts.
More from Alexander Grothendieck
All quotes →Similar quotes
It is seen that both matter and radiation possess a remarkable duality of character, as they sometimes exhibit the properties of waves, at other times those of particles. Now, it is obvious that a thing cannot be a form of wave motion and composed of particles at the same time - the two concepts are too different.
Werner HeisenbergRead
The first mission to Mars did not expect to find craters and river valleys, and yet they did. The first mission to Jupiter didn't expect to find ocean worlds and volcano worlds, but they did.
Alan SternRead
An idea can be tested, whereas if you have no idea, nothing can be tested and you don't understand anything. The molecule that you make when you are getting sunburned or when you eat a lot of food is part of the same molecule that contains an endorphin or an opiate. No one has ever had a hypothesis about why the two are together.
James D. WatsonRead
The legends of fieldwork locate all important sites deep in inaccessible jungles inhabited by fierce beasts and restless natives, and surrounded by miasmas of putrefaction and swarms of tsetse flies.
Stephen Jay GouldRead
Any scientist who can't explain to an eight-year-old what he is doing is a charlatan.
Kurt VonnegutRead
In speaking of the Energy of the field, however, I wish to be understood literally. All energy is the same as mechanical energy, whether it exists in the form of motion or in that of elasticity, or in any other form. The energy in electromagnetic phenomena is mechanical energy.
James Clerk MaxwellRead