Ancient Greek mathematics Quotes
A curated collection of the best quotes about Ancient Greek mathematics.
Top Quotes
“Thomas Little Heath”
“Euclid’s Elements”
“History of mathematics”
“The ancient Geometry had no symbols, nor any notation beyond ordinary language and the specific terms of the science.”
“With Diophantus the history of Greek arithmetic comes to an end. No original work, that we know of, was done afterwards.”
“Greek mathematics reveals an important aspect of the Greek genius of which the student of Greek culture is apt to lose sight.”
“The Greeks... were well aware of geometric magnitudes that we call "irrational," but simply did not think of them as numbers.”
“Any one can use our algebraic notation, but only a gifted mathematician can deal with the Greek theory of proportions and with geometric algebra.”
“In the Greek world mathematics was more closely related to philosophy than to practical affairs, and this kinship has persisted to the present day.”
“The extraordinary ability of Diophantus appears rather in... the ingenuity with which he reduces every problem to an equation which he is competent to solve.”
“James Gow, A Short History of Greek Mathematics (1884)*nternet Archive”
“Comparatively few of the propositions and proofs in the Elements are his [Euclid's] own discoveries. In fact, the proof of the "Theorem of Pythagoras" is the only one directly ascribed to him.”
“Theon of Smyrna was the author of a book purporting to be a manual of mathematical subjects such as a student would require to enable him to understand Plato.”
“It is the purpose of this paper to show what is historically wrong with the traditional way the history of ancient Greek mathematics has been written and to call to the new generation of historians of Greek mathematics to rewrite the history on a new and historically sane basis.”
“It is well known that the commentary of Proclus on Eucl. Book I is one of the two main sources of information as to the history of Greek geometry which we possess, the other being the Collection of Pappus.”
“Thomas Little Heath, A History of Greek Mathematics, Vol. 1, From Thales to Euclid, Vol. 2 From Aristarchus to Diophantus (1921)*nternet Archive”
“The history of Alexandrian mathematics begins with the Elements of Euclid and closes with the Algebra of Diophantus, both of which are founded on the discoveries of several preceding centuries.”
“For the mathematician the important consideration is that the foundations of mathematics and a great portion of its content are Greek. The Greeks laid down the first principles, invented the methods ab initio, and fixed the terminology. Mathematics in short is a Greek science, whatever new developments modern analysis has brought or may bring.”
“The most common and characteristic of Diophantus' methods is his use of tentative assumptions which is applied in nearly every problem of the later books. It consists in assigning to the unknown a preliminary value which satisfies one or two only of the necessary conditions, in order that, from its failure to satisfy the remaining conditions, the operator may perceive what exactly is required...”