Greek Letters Used in Mathematics

Famous quotes containing the words greek, letters and/or mathematics:

    Indeed, there is hardly the professor in our colleges, who, if he has mastered the difficulties of the language, has proportionally mastered the difficulties of the language, has proportionally mastered the difficulties of the wit and poetry of a Greek poet, and has any sympathy to impart to the alert and heroic reader.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Two months dead, I wrestle with your name
    Whose separate letters make a paltry sum
    That is not you.
    Howard Moss (b. 1922)

    Why does man freeze to death trying to reach the North Pole? Why does man drive himself to suffer the steam and heat of the Amazon? Why does he stagger his mind with the mathematics of the sky? Once the question mark has arisen in the human brain the answer must be found, if it takes a hundred years. A thousand years.
    Walter Reisch (1903–1963)