David Bessis > Quotes

“Great mathematicians are born with a brain fundamentally different from ours. We may as well be clear about the first one: no, mathematicians don’t think logically. It is in fact utterly impossible to think logically. Logic doesn’t help at all with thinking. We shall see later on what it is used for.”
― David Bessis, Mathematica: A Secret World of Intuition and Curiosity

“Contrairement à une idée reçue, la logique n’est pas l’ennemie de l’imagination. Elle est même sa grande alliée. La véritable ennemie de l’imagination, celle qui bloque la compréhension et nous fait nous sentir idiots, c’est toujours la peur.”
― David Bessis, Mathematica

“Mathematical work isn’t a series of lightning insights and strokes of genius. It’s first of all a work of reeducation based on the repetition of the same exercises of imagination.”
― David Bessis, Mathematica: A Secret World of Intuition and Curiosity

“In their minds, the ideas are luminous, simple, and powerful. On paper, they become stunted and sad. The mathematicians’ curse is that they can only play math in their own heads. If you taught children music by giving them the written scores for Mozart or Michael Jackson to decipher without their ever having heard it played, music would be as universally hated as math.”
― David Bessis, Mathematica: A Secret World of Intuition and Curiosity

“We may as well be clear about the first one: no, mathematicians don’t think logically. It is in fact utterly impossible to think logically. Logic doesn’t help at all with thinking. We shall see later on what it is used for.”
― David Bessis, Mathematica: A Secret World of Intuition and Curiosity