22 Quotes by Morris Kline

Psychologically, the teaching of abstractions first is wrong. Indeed, a thorough understanding of the concrete must precede the abstract.

A proof tells us where to concentrate our doubts.

Mathematics is a body of knowledge, but it contains no truths.

In brief, the whole world is the totality of mathematically expressible motions of objects in space and time, and the entire universe is a great, harmonious, and mathematically designed machine.

Perhaps the best reason for regarding mathematics as an art is not so much that it affords an outlet for creative activity as that it provides spiritual values. It puts man in touch with the highest aspirations and lofiest goals. It offers intellectual delight and the exultation of resolving the mysteries of the universe.

Universities hire professors the way some men choose wives - they want the ones the others will admire.

Actually, most mathematics courses do not teach reasoning of any kind. Students are so baffled by the material that they are obliged to memorize in order to pass examinations.

A elegantly executed proof is a poem in all but the form in which it is written.

Statistics: the mathematical theory of ignorance.