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"The art of doing mathematics is finding that special case that contains all the germs of generality."
——David Hilbert
“数学之道在于找出一个这样的特例，它包含普遍原则的全部萌芽。”
——大卫·希尔伯特
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"Using the chain rule is like peeling an onion: you have to deal with each layer at a time, and if it is too big you will start crying."
——Anonymous professor
“运用链式法则就好比剥洋葱：你得一层一层地剥开它的心，要是它的个头太大，你还会鼻酸留泪。”
——某匿名教授
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"Who has not been amazed to learn that the function y= e^x^ , like a phoenix rising again from its own ashes, is its own derivative?"
——Francois le Lionnais
“有谁不曾被 y= e^x惊艳过？就像是浴火重生的凤凰一般，它从自身的导数中一飞冲天”
——弗朗索瓦·勒利奥内
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"Do not ask whether a statement is true until you know what it means."
——Errett Bishop
“明白一句话的意义之前，不要去问它是否正确。”
——埃雷特·毕肖普(美国实分析数学家)
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"Calculus required continuity, and continuity was supposed to require the infinitely little; but nobody could discover what the infinitely little might be."
Bertrand Russell
“微积分需要连续，而连续需要无穷小，但是没人能探明无穷小的样子。”
——伯特兰·罗素
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"One should never try to prove anything that is not almost obvious."
——Alexander Grothendieck
“不是几乎显而易见的道理，就根本不要去证明”
——亚历山大·格罗滕迪克
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"We often hear that mathematics consists mainly of proving theorems. Is a writer's job mainly that of writing sentences?"
——Gian-Carlo Rota
“人们常说数学的主要内容就是证明定理。那么作家的主要工作就是书写句子吗?”
——吉安-卡洛·罗塔
注:意裔美籍数学家及哲学家
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"For me, mathematics is a collection of examples; a theorem is a statement about a collection of examples and the purpose of proving theorems is to classify and explain the examples ."
——John B. Conway
“对于我而言，数学就是范例的集合，定理是为了描述范例，证明定理是为了分类并解释范例。”
——约翰·B·康威
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"There is hardly any theory which is more elementary than linear algebra, in spite of the fact that generations of professors and text book writers have obscured its simplicity by preposterous calculations with matrices."
——Jean Dieudonne
“尽管一批教授和教科书编者用关于矩阵的荒唐至极的计算内容掩盖了线性代数的简明性，但是鲜有与之相较更为初等的理论。”
——让·迪厄多内
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"The introduction of numbers as coordinates is an act of violence."
——Hermann Weyl
“(参照一维连续统的特定划分模式来)引入一些数作为坐标是一种鲁莽的行为。”
——赫尔曼·外尔
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"You know, for a mathematician, he did not have enough imagination. But he has become a poet and now he is fine."
——David Hilbert
“他曾没有足够的想象力来当数学家。不过他成了一名诗人，现在过得挺好。”
——大卫·希尔伯特
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"So far as the theories of mathematics are about reality, they are not certain; so far as they are certain, they are not about reality."
——Albert Einstein
“数学法则只要与现实有关，都是不确定的；若是确定的，都与现实无关。”
——阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦
