Thumbnail of Augustus De Morgan
Augustus De Morgan
(27 Jun 1806 - 18 Mar 1871)

English mathematician and logician who did important work in abstract symbolic logic, the theory of relations, and formulated De Morgan's laws.


Science Quotes by Augustus De Morgan (20)

As to writing another book on geometry [to replace Euclid] the middle ages would have as soon thought of composing another New Testament.
— Augustus De Morgan
In George Edward Martin, The Foundations of Geometry and the Non-Euclidean Plane (1982), 130.
See also:  |  Euclid (19)  |  Geometry (38)

Common integration is only the memory of differentiation...
— Augustus De Morgan
See also:  |  Differentiation (6)  |  Integration (6)  |  Mathematics (226)

Considerable obstacles generally present themselves to the beginner, in studying the elements of Solid Geometry, from the practice which has hitherto uniformly prevailed in this country, of never submitting to the eye of the student, the figures on whose properties he is reasoning, but of drawing perspective representations of them upon a plane. ...I hope that I shall never be obliged to have recourse to a perspective drawing of any figure whose parts are not in the same plane.
— Augustus De Morgan
Quoted in Adrian Rice, 'What Makes a Great Mathematics Teacher?' The American Mathematical Monthly, (June-July 1999), 540.
See also:  |  Art (27)  |  Geometry (38)

Every science that has thriven has thriven upon its own symbols: logic, the only science which is admitted to have made no improvements in century after century, is the only one which has grown no symbols.
— Augustus De Morgan
Transactions Cambridge Philosophical Society, vol. X, 1864, p.184
See also:  |  Logic (69)  |  Symbol (13)

Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.
And the great fleas themselves, in turn have, greater fleas to go on;
While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on.
[He was imitating: 'So, naturalists observe, a flea Has smaller fleas that on him prey; And these have smaller still to bite 'em; And so proceed ad infinitum.' Poetry, a Rhapsody, by Jonathan Swift.]
— Augustus De Morgan
A Budget of Paradoxes (1915), first published 1872, Vol. 2, 191.
See also:  |  Poem (53)

I don't quite hear what you say, but I beg to differ entirely with you.
— Augustus De Morgan
See also:  |  Quip (59)

I end with a word on the new symbols which I have employed. Most writers on logic strongly object to all symbols. ... I should advise the reader not to make up his mind on this point until he has well weighed two facts which nobody disputes, both separately and in connexion. First, logic is the only science which has made no progress since the revival of letters; secondly, logic is the only science which has produced no growth of symbols.
— Augustus De Morgan
See also:  |  Logic (69)  |  Symbol (13)

I was x years old in the year x2.
When asked about his age (43).
— Augustus De Morgan
Quoted in H. Eves, In Mathematical Circles (1969).
See also:  |  Biography (159)  |  Mathematics (226)

Imagine a person with a gift of ridicule [He might say] First that a negative quantity has no logarithm; secondly that a negative quantity has no square root; thirdly that the first non-existent is to the second as the circumference of a circle is to the diameter.
— Augustus De Morgan
See also:  |  Logarithm (3)  |  Mathematics (226)

It is easier to square the circle than to get round a mathematician.
— Augustus De Morgan
In Budget of Paradoxes (1872), 90.
See also:  |  Mathematician (69)

It was long before I got at the maxim, that in reading an old mathematician you will not read his riddle unless you plough with his heifer; you must see with his light, if you want to know how much he saw.
— Augustus De Morgan
Letter to W. R. Hamilton, 27 January 1853. In R. P. Graves (ed.), A Life of Sir W. R. Hamilton (1889), Vol. 3, 438.
See also:  |  Mathematician (69)

Lagrange, in one of the later years of his life, imagined that he had overcome the difficulty (of the parallel axiom). He went so far as to write a paper, which he took with him to the Institute, and began to read it. But in the first paragraph something struck him that he had not observed: he muttered: 'Il faut que j'y songe encore', and put the paper in his pocket.' [I must think about it again]
— Augustus De Morgan
Budget of Paradoxes (1872), 173.
See also:  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (7)  |  Mathematics (226)

One day at least in every week,
The sects of every kind
Their doctrines here are sure to seek,
And just as sure to find.
— Augustus De Morgan
From Matter to Spirit, Preface.
See also:  |  Poem (53)

The Astronomer's Drinking Song
Astronomers! What can avail
Those who calumniate us;
Experiment can never fail
With such an apparatus...
— Augustus De Morgan
A Budget of Paradoxes
See also:  |  Astronomy (68)  |  Poem (53)

The gambling reasoner is incorrigible; if he would but take to the squaring of the circle, what a load of misery would be saved.
— Augustus De Morgan
Quoted in D. MacHale, Comic Sections (1993).
See also:  |  Mathematics (226)

The genius of Laplace was a perfect sledge hammer in bursting purely mathematical obstacles; but, like that useful instrument, it gave neither finish nor beauty to the results. In truth, in truism if the reader please, Laplace was neither Lagrange nor Euler, as every student is made to feel. The second is power and symmetry, the third power and simplicity; the first is power without either symmetry or simplicity. But, nevertheless, Laplace never attempted investigation of a subject without leaving upon it the marks of difficulties conquered: sometimes clumsily, sometimes indirectly, always without minuteness of design or arrangement of detail; but still, his end is obtained and the difficulty is conquered.
— Augustus De Morgan
'Review of "Théorie Analytique des Probabilites" par M. le Marquis de Laplace, 3eme edition. Paris. 1820', Dublin Review (1837), 2, 348.
See also:  |  Beauty (35)  |  Design (13)  |  Detail (8)  |  Difficulty (21)  |  Leonhard Euler (5)  |  Genius (57)  |  Instrument (9)  |  Investigation (28)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (7)  |  Pierre-Simon Laplace (41)  |  Mathematics (226)  |  Obstacle (5)  |  Power (21)  |  Result (33)  |  Simplicity (33)  |  Student (18)  |  Symmetry (5)

The imaginary expression √(-a) and the negative expression -b, have this resemblance, that either of them occurring as the solution of a problem indicates some inconsistency or absurdity. As far as real meaning is concerned, both are imaginary, since 0 - a is as inconceivable as √(-a).
— Augustus De Morgan
See also:  |  Mathematics (226)

The moving power of mathematical invention is not reasoning but imagination.
— Augustus De Morgan
Quoted in Robert Perceval Graves, Life of Sir W. R. Hamilton, Vol. 3 (1889), 219.
See also:  |  Imagination (54)  |  Mathematics (226)

This mysterious 3.141592..., which comes in at every door and window, and down every chimney.
— Augustus De Morgan
See also:  |  Pi (3)

We know that mathematicians care no more for logic than logicians for mathematics. The two eyes of science are mathematics and logic; the mathematical set puts out the logical eye, the logical set puts out the mathematical eye; each believing that it sees better with one eye than with two.
Note that De Morgan, himself, only had sight with only one eye.
— Augustus De Morgan
Review of a book on geometry in the Athenaeum, 1868, Vol. 2, 71-73.
See also:  |  Logician (2)  |  Mathematician (69)



Quotes by others about Augustus De Morgan (1)

De Morgan was explaining to an actuary what was the chance that a certain proportion of some group of people would at the end of a given time be alive; and quoted the actuarial formula, involving p [pi], which, in answer to a question, he explained stood for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. His acquaintance, who had so far listened to the explanation with interest, interrupted him and exclaimed, 'My dear friend, that must be a delusion, what can a circle have to do with the number of people alive at a given time?'
Mathematical Recreations and Problems (1896), 180; See also De Morgan's Budget of Paradoxes (1872), 172.
See also:  |  Anecdote (14)  |  Answer (25)  |  Chance (40)  |  Circle (3)  |  Circumference (2)  |  Death (95)  |  Diameter (2)  |  Explanation (26)  |  Formula (16)  |  Group (3)  |  Interest (6)  |  Interrupt (2)  |  Number (46)  |  Pi (3)  |  Proportion (10)  |  Question (52)  |  Ratio (3)


back arrow
Custom search within only our quotations pages:
Sitewide search within all Today In Science History pages:

Visit our Science and Scientist Quotations index for more Science Quotes from archaeologists, biologists, chemists, geologists, inventors and inventions, mathematicians, physicists, pioneers in medicine, science events and technology.

Names index: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

Categories index: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |



Site Navigation


If you find this site useful, please add a link from your site.


Today in Science History
Quotations
by scientists, inventors, on science and more.
- Go To Index -

Buy Telescopes and other Stargazing Devices from Edmund Scientific

9,751,240


Test Link - Please Ignore