Mathematics/history

Famous quotes containing the words mathematics and/or history:

    In mathematics he was greater
    Than Tycho Brahe, or Erra Pater:
    For he, by geometric scale,
    Could take the size of pots of ale;
    Resolve, by sines and tangents straight,
    If bread and butter wanted weight;
    And wisely tell what hour o’ th’ day
    The clock doth strike, by algebra.
    Samuel Butler (1612–1680)

    Both place and time were changed, and I dwelt nearer to those parts of the universe and to those eras in history which had most attracted me.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)