Arithmetic Quotes

“I could never have gone far in any science because on the path of every science the lion Mathematics lies in wait for you.”
― C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life

“When you have mastered numbers, you will in fact no longer be reading numbers, any more than you read words when reading books. You will be reading meanings.”
― W.E.B. Dubois

“It is India that gave us the ingenious method of expressing all numbers by means of ten symbols, each symbol receiving a value of position as well as an absolute value; a profound and important idea which appears so simple to us now that we ignore its true merit. But its very simplicity and the great ease which it has lent to computations put our arithmetic in the first rank of useful inventions; and we shall appreciate the grandeur of the achievement the more when we remember that it escaped the genius of Archimedes and Apollonius, two of the greatest men produced by antiquity.”
― Pierre-Simon Laplace

“It's completely logical," explained the Dodecahedron. "The more you want, the less you get, and the less you get, the more you have. Simple arithmetic, that's all. Suppose you had something and added something to it. What would that make?"
"More," said Milo quickly.
"Quite correct," he nodded. "Now suppose you had something and added nothing to it. What would you have?"
"The same," he answered again, without much conviction.
"Splendid," cried the Dodecahedron. "And suppose you had something and added less than nothing to it. What would you have then?"
"FAMINE!" roared the anguished Humbug, who suddenly realized that that was exactly what he'd eaten twenty-three bowls of.”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

“Maybe fate's arithmetic is so diffuse that it's not arithmetic at all.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“There are many arts and sciences of which a miner should not be ignorant. First there is Philosophy, that he may discern the origin, cause, and nature of subterranean things; for then he will be able to dig out the veins easily and advantageously, and to obtain more abundant results from his mining. Secondly there is Medicine, that he may be able to look after his diggers and other workman ... Thirdly follows astronomy, that he may know the divisions of the heavens and from them judge the directions of the veins. Fourthly, there is the science of Surveying that he may be able to estimate how deep a shaft should be sunk ... Fifthly, his knowledge of Arithmetical Science should be such that he may calculate the cost to be incurred in the machinery and the working of the mine. Sixthly, his learning must comprise Architecture, that he himself may construct the various machines and timber work required underground ... Next, he must have knowledge of Drawing, that he can draw plans of his machinery. Lastly, there is the Law, especially that dealing with metals, that he may claim his own rights, that he may undertake the duty of giving others his opinion on legal matters, that he may not take another man's property and so make trouble for himself, and that he may fulfil his obligations to others according to the law.”
― Georgius Agricola, DE RE METALLICA [TRANSLATED FROM THE FIRST LATIN EDITION OF 1556]

“I then began to study arithmetical questions without any great apparent result, and without suspecting that they could have the least connexion with my previous researches. Disgusted at my want of success, I went away to spend a few days at the seaside, and thought of entirely different things. One day, as I was walking on the cliff, the idea came to me, again with the same characteristics of conciseness, suddenness, and immediate certainty, that arithmetical transformations of indefinite ternary quadratic forms are identical with those of non-Euclidian geometry.”
― Henri Poincaré, Science and Method

“As to the need of improvement there can be no question whilst the reign of Euclid continues. My own idea of a useful course is to begin with arithmetic, and then not Euclid but algebra. Next, not Euclid, but practical geometry, solid as well as plane; not demonstration, but to make acquaintance. Then not Euclid, but elementary vectors, conjoined with algebra, and applied to geometry. Addition first; then the scalar product. Elementary calculus should go on simultaneously, and come into vector algebraic geometry after a bit. Euclid might be an extra course for learned men, like Homer...”
― Oliver Heaviside, Electromagnetic Theory

“Mathematics is not arithmetic. Though mathematics may have arisen from the practices of counting and measuring it really deals with logical reasoning in which theorems—general and specific statements—can be deduced from the starting assumptions. It is, perhaps, the purest and most rigorous of intellectual activities, and is often thought of as queen of the sciences.”
― Christopher Zeeman

“If a good system of agriculture, unrivaled manufacturing skill, a capacity to produce whatever can contribute to either convenience or luxury, schools established in every village for teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic, the general practice of hospitality and charity amongst each other, and above all, a treatment of the female sex full of confidence, respect, and delicacy, are among the signs which denote a civilized people – then the Hindus are not inferior to the nations of Europe, and if civilization is to become an article of trade between England and India, I am convinced that England will gain by the import cargo.”
― Thomas Munro

“If scientific reasoning were limited to the logical processes of arithmetic, we should not get very far in our understanding of the physical world. One might as well attempt to grasp the game of poker entirely by the use of the mathematics of probability.”
― Vannevar Bush, Endless Horizons

“Clever dicks will notice that the figure changes as the boat gets deeper or lighter because the area of the waterplane changes. You can go on enjoying arithmetic all night like this and never go sailing at all.”
― Bill Cooper, Sell Up & Sail

“Two négatives don't make a positive, but Mathematics tells us différent”
― Goitsemang Sandra Mvula

“Children's as good as 'rithmetic to set you findin' out things.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

“So yes, he could be funny. If you thought such things were funny. And the coffee had to be made with a specific number of beans. He could taste any errors in arithmetic.”
― Jonathan Lee, The Great Mistake

“A goal of this book has been to tear down in some small part these barriers to understanding by attempting to shatter the “divinity of arithmetic,” through showing that even the methods, which we now take most for granted, were not given to us from on high, but were actually the result of centuries of scientific efforts on the part of our predecessors. p. 269”
― G. Arnell Williams , How Math Works: A Guide to Grade School Arithmetic for Parents and Teachers

“God never subtracts He only adds. If you subtract things disappear”
― Rev Sun Myung Moon

“Without a theory, a plan,
the mere mechanical manipulation
of the numbers in a problem
does not necessarily make sense
just because you are
using Arithmetic!”
― Lillian R. Lieber, The Education of T.C. Mits: What modern mathematics means to you