Timeline for Famous mathematical quotes
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
5 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 16, 2011 at 4:27 | comment | added | Lea M | This story is mentioned in Constance Reid's lovely biography "Hilbert". | |
| Nov 29, 2009 at 22:58 | comment | added | Harrison Brown | I seem to recall it being in one of the 10^150 popular books on the Riemann Hypothesis or Fermat's Last Theorem I read when I was younger, but I don't know that I can narrow it down any further than that. | |
| Nov 29, 2009 at 22:14 | comment | added | Greg Kuperberg | You might have gotten it from the Monthly in 1993, or a mailing list or blog that derives from that source. Google Books traces it back to a book about Ernst Cassirer published in 1949. Since it is quoted there as Cassirer's verbal story, it's less clear what Hilbert himself said. archive.org/stream/philosophyoferns033109mbp/… | |
| Nov 29, 2009 at 21:08 | comment | added | Qiaochu Yuan | This sounds like it's from the Apology. | |
| Nov 29, 2009 at 20:58 | history | answered | Mariano Suárez-Álvarez | CC BY-SA 2.5 |