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 v…

- James Joseph Sylvester

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 h…

- James Joseph Sylvester

Chemistry has the same quickening and suggestive influence upon the algebraist as a visit to the Royal Academy, or the old masters may be supposed to…

- James Joseph Sylvester

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

- James Joseph Sylvester

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…

- James Joseph Sylvester

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…

- James Joseph Sylvester

Mathematics is the music of reason.

- James Joseph Sylvester

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

- James Joseph Sylvester

I know, indeed, and can conceive of no pursuit so antagonistic to the cultivation of the oratorical faculty ... as the study of Mathematics. An eloqu…

- James Joseph Sylvester