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With our limited understanding, often we do not agree with the time and the place and the manner in which men come and go. We see many live and prosper, who, according to our way of thinking may not deserve to do either. We see many die, who, in our judgment, have earned the right to live and whose presence among us is sorely needed. And if, with our limited perspective and understanding, we were called upon to give an explanation of the pattern of life and death as it daily takes shape before our eyes, we might be led to conclude that in it all there is lack of purpose, lack of justice, lack of consistency. Richard Louis Evans		Thursday Jul 09, 2026
		Quotes: 53419 Authors: 9969

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I do not want to presuppose anything as known. I see in my explanation in section 1 the definition of the concepts point, straight line and plane, if one adds to these all the axioms of groups i-v as characteristics. If one is looking for other definitions of point, perhaps by means of paraphrase in terms of extensionless, etc., then, of course, I would most decidedly have to oppose such an enterprise. One is then looking for something that can never be found, for there is nothing there, and everything gets lost, becomes confused and vague, and degenerates into a game of hide and seek.

Quote Author: David Hilbert

David Hilbert

David Hilbert

David Hilbert (January 23, 1862 - February 14, 1943) was a German mathematician, recognized as one of the most influential and universal mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He invented or developed a broad range of fundamental ideas, in invariant theory, the axiomatization of geometry, and with the notion of Hilbert space, one of the foundations of functional analysis.

Hilbert adopted and warmly defended Georg Cantor's set theory and transfinite numbers. A famous example of his leadership in mathematics is his 1900 presentation of a collection of problems that set the course for much of the mathematical research of the 20th century.

Hilbert and his students supplied significant portions of the mathematical infrastructure required for quantum mechanics and general relativity. He is also known as one of the founders of proof theory, mathematical logic and the distinction between mathematics and metamathematics.

Other David Hilbert Quotes

Before beginning I should put in three years of intensive study, and I haven't that much time to squander on a probable failure. [On why he didn't try to solve Fermat's last theorem]

Galileo was no idiot. Only an idiot could believe that science requires martyrdom that may be necessary in religion, but in time a scientific result will establish itself.

How thoroughly it is ingrained in mathematical science that every real advance goes hand in hand with the invention of sharper tools and simpler methods which, at the same time, assist in understanding earlier theories and in casting aside some more complicated developments.

I have tried to avoid long numerical computations, thereby following Riemann's postulate that proofs should be given through ideas and not voluminous computations.

Mathematics is a game played according to certain simple rules with meaningless marks on paper.

Mathematics knows no races or geographic boundaries; for mathematics,the cultural world is one country.

One can measure the importance of a scientific work by the number of earlier publications rendered superfluous by it.

Physics is much too hard for physicists.

The art of doing mathematics consists in finding that special case which contains all the germs of generality.

The further a mathematical theory is developed, the more harmoniously and uniformly does its construction proceed, and unsuspected relations are disclosed between hitherto separated branches of the science.

The infinite! No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man.

Wir müssen wissen. Wir werden wissen.

I do not want to presuppose anything as known. I see in my explanation in section 1 the definition of the concepts point, straight line and plane, if one adds to these all the axioms of groups i-v as characteristics. If one is looking for other definitions of point, perhaps by means of paraphrase in terms of extensionless, etc., then, of course, I would most decidedly have to oppose such an enterprise. One is then looking for something that can never be found, for there is nothing there, and everything gets lost, becomes confused and vague, and degenerates into a game of hide and seek.