We must admit with humility that, while number is purely a product of our minds, space has a reality outside our minds, so that we cannot completely prescribe its properties a priori.
Carl Friedrich GaussRead
Mathematics is the queen of sciences and number theory is the queen of mathematics. She often condescends to render service to astronomy and other natural sciences, but in all relations she is entitled to the first rank.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Mathematics is fundamental to all sciences, and number theory holds a special significance within it.
In this quote, Carl Friedrich Gauss emphasizes the primacy of mathematics in the hierarchy of sciences, asserting that number theory, as a vital branch of mathematics, is particularly esteemed. He suggests that while mathematics supports various fields such as astronomy and natural sciences, it inherently holds a prestigious position deserving of recognition and respect across disciplines.
Themes
MathematicsNumber TheorySciencesPrimacyHierarchy
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of mathematics in education, one might quote Gauss to highlight how foundational math is to understanding the world.
More from Carl Friedrich Gauss
All quotes →I protest against the use of infinite magnitude ..., which is never permissible in mathematics.
Carl Friedrich GaussRead
To praise it would amount to praising myself. For the entire content of the work... coincides almost exactly with my own meditations which have occupied my mind for the past thirty or thirty-five years.
Carl Friedrich GaussRead
The problem of distinguishing prime numbers from composite numbers and of resolving the latter into their prime factors is known to be one of the most important and useful in arithmetic.
Carl Friedrich GaussRead
Life stands before me like an eternal spring with new and brilliant clothes.
Carl Friedrich GaussRead
When I have clarified and exhausted a subject, then I turn away from it, in order to go into darkness again.
Carl Friedrich GaussRead
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