Hermann Weyl

1885–1955 · German mathematician

Topics: mathematics, learning, science

• In these days the angel of topology and the devil of abstract algebra fight for the soul of each individual mathematical domain.

  — Hermann Weyl

• It is the nature of a real thing to be inexhaustible in content; we can get an ever deeper insight into this content by the continual addition of new experiences, partly in apparent contradiction, by bringing them into harmony with one another.

  — Hermann Weyl

• The rapid development of science... has, as it were, burst its old shell, now become too narrow.

  — Hermann Weyl

• Symmetry is a vast subject, significant in art and nature. Mathematics lies at its root, and it would be hard to find a better one on which to demonstrate the working of the mathematical intellect.

  — Hermann Weyl

• We now come to a decisive step of mathematical abstraction: we forget about what the symbols stand for... [The mathematician] need not be idle; there are many operations which he may carry out with these symbols, without ever having to look at the things they stand for.

  — Hermann Weyl