Quote by James Joseph Sylvester
Mathematics is not a book confined within a cover and bound between brazen clasps, whose contents it needs only patience to ransack; it is not a mine, whose treasures may take long to reduce into possession, but which fill only a limited number of veins and lodes; it is not a soil, whose fertility can be exhausted by the yield of successive harvests; it is not a continent or an ocean, whose area can be mapped out and its contour defined: it is limitless as that space which it finds too narrow for its aspirations; its possibilities are as infinite as the worlds which are forever crowding in and multiplying upon the astronomer's gaze.
Summary
This quote explains that mathematics cannot be confined or exhausted by traditional boundaries or limitations. It is not a book that can be easily understood with patience, nor a mine that offers finite treasures. Unlike a piece of land or body of water, its possibilities are limitless, just like the vast expanse of space. Mathematics is always expanding, with endless possibilities and discoveries, much like the countless worlds that astronomers continue to observe.
Topics
Mathematics
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