The 37 Greatest Math Quotes of All Time — Mashup Math (2024)

The 37 Greatest Math Quotes of All Time — Mashup Math (1)



by Anthony Persico

Inspiring and Motivational Quotes About Math for Students

Without mathematics, there’s nothing you can do. Everything around you is mathematics. Everything around you is numbers. -Shakuntala Devi

Mathematics is an alluring and inspiring subject that has captivated inquisitive minds for thousands of years. Yet, helping your students to have a passion and appreciation for the beauty of mathematics can be a difficult task.

One way to give your students insight into the wonders and mysterious charm of math is by sharing and discussing inspiring math quotes. Many teachers opt to share a quote of the week or post a bulletin board in their classroom with inspiring quotes about math on display.

While there are hundreds of math quotes to be found online, many of them are not exactly inspiring, interesting, or even appropriate for students. So, we have compiled a list of the 37 best math quotes for students along with several corresponding image graphics that you can display in your classroom digitally or by printing them out.

We call our list The 37 Greatest Math Quotes of All Time because it is just that. Below, you will find inspiring, insightful, and even funny math quotes from some of history and modern day’s wisest and most talented male and female mathematicians from various backgrounds.

So, go ahead and scroll through this awesome collection of math quotes. You will be sure to find many that will fill you and your students with inspiration, motivation, and even a renewed passion for the greatest subject there ever was—math!

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The 37 Greatest Math Quotes of All Time

The 37 Greatest Math Quotes of All Time — Mashup Math (3)

“Nature is written in mathematical language.”
“Mathematics is the most beautiful and most powerful creation of the human spirit. ”
“It is impossible to be a mathematician without being a poet in soul.”
“The essence of math is not to make simple things complicated, but to make complicated things simple.”
“Life is a math equation. In order to gain the most, you have to know how to convert negatives into positives”
“Math is like going to the gym for your brain. It sharpens your mind.”
“What is mathematics? It is only a systematic effort of solving puzzles posed by nature.”
“There should be no such thing as boring mathematics.”
“I’ve always been interested in using mathematics to make the world work better.”
“I hope that seeing the excitement of solving this problem will make mathematicians realize that there are lots and lots of other problems in mathematics which are going to be just as challenging in the future.”

The 37 Greatest Math Quotes of All Time — Mashup Math (5)

“Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or algorithms: it is about understanding.”
“Mathematics is the most beautiful and most powerful creation of the human spirit.”
“Mathematics has beauty and romance. It’s not a boring place to be, the mathematical world. It’s an extraordinary place; it’s worth spending time there.”
“The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics.”
“We will always have STEM with us. Some things will drop out of the public eye and go away, but there will always be science, engineering, and technology. And there will always, always be mathematics.”

The 37 Greatest Math Quotes of All Time — Mashup Math (6)

“Mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.”
“Mathematics knows no races or geographic boundaries; for mathematics, the cultural world is one country.”
“Mathematics may not teach us to add love or subtract hate, but it gives us hope that every problem has a solution.”
“In mathematics, the art of proposing a question must be held of higher value than solving it.”
“I’ve always enjoyed mathematics. It is the most precise and concise way of expressing an idea.”

The 37 Greatest Math Quotes of All Time — Mashup Math (7)

“Without mathematics, there’s nothing you can do. Everything around you is mathematics. Everything around you is numbers.”
“Mathematics are the result of mysterious powers which no one understands, and which the unconscious recognition of beauty must play an important part. Out of an infinity of designs a mathematician chooses one pattern for beauty’s sake and pulls it down to earth.”
“It is the perennial youthfulness of mathematics itself which marks it off with a disconcerting immortality from the other sciences.”
“A mathematician who is not also something of a poet will never be a complete mathematician.”

The 37 Greatest Math Quotes of All Time — Mashup Math (8)

“Mathematics is the music of reason”
“Go down deep enough into anything and you will find mathematics.”
“Mathematics is not a careful march down a well-cleared highway, but a journey into a strange wilderness, where the explorers often get lost. Rigor should be a signal to the historians that the maps have been made, and the real explorers have gone elsewhere.”
“It’s fine to work on any problem, so long as it generates interesting mathematics along the way - even if you don’t solve it at the end of the day.”
“Mathematics compares the most diverse phenomena and discovers the secret analogies that unite them.”
“The study of mathematics, like the Nile, begins in minuteness but ends in magnificence.”

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The last portion of our list includes some funny math quotes to add a little humor into your classroom.

Looking for more math humor? Check out these super cute and funny math jokes and puns for students.

The 37 Greatest Math Quotes of All Time — Mashup Math (10)

“If you stop at general math, then you will only make general money.”
“There are two ways to do great mathematics. The first is to be smarter than everybody else. The second way is to be stupider than everybody else — but persistent.”
“If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.”
“Somehow it’s o.k. for people to chuckle about not being good at math. Yet if I said ‘I never learned to read,” they’d say I was an illiterate dolt.”
“Arithmetic is numbers you squeeze from your head to your hand to your pencil to your paper till you get the answer.”
“‘Obvious’ is the most dangerous word in mathematics.”
“In mathematics, you don’t understand things. You just get used to them.”

Using Math Quotes to Inspire Your Students

The 37 Greatest Math Quotes of All Time — Mashup Math (11)

While these quotes are excellent for posting in your classroom to inspire your students on a daily basis, you can also use them to foster whole class or small group discussions about math or even as a writing prompt for a math journal entry (we recommend the I Think… I Notice… I Wonder… model for math journaling).

Luckily, there are many ways to share these math quotes with your students. Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

  • Write a favorite math quote on the board for students to see when they enter class.

  • Select a favorite quote to place underneath your professional email sign-off.

  • Copy-and-paste your favorite quotes onto a word document that can be printed and posted in your classroom or somewhere in your school.

  • Have your students create their own inspirational math quotes.

  • Put an inspirational math quote at the header or footer of quizzes, tests, exams, etc.

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The 37 Greatest Math Quotes of All Time  — Mashup Math (2024)

FAQs

What is the most famous quote in math? ›

Famous math quotes
  • Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas. ...
  • Without mathematics, there's nothing you can do. ...
  • Mathematics is the most beautiful and most powerful creation of the human spirit. ...
  • We will always have STEM with us.
Jul 17, 2019

What did Einstein say about math? ›

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

What are the quotes of Ramanujan on maths? ›

An equation for me has no meaning, unless it expresses a thought of God.” “To preserve my brains I want food and this is now my first consideration. Any sympathetic letter from you will be helpful to me here to get a scholarship.”

What quote will motivate you to do math? ›

Without mathematics, there's nothing you can do. Everything around you is mathematics. Everything around you is numbers.” – Shakuntala Devi.

What did Leonardo da Vinci say about math? ›

Whoever despises the high wisdom of mathematics nourishes himself on delusion and will never still the sophistic sciences whose only product is an eternal uproar.

Who is the famous father of math? ›

Archimedes is widely regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians in history, earning him the title of the "Father of Mathematics." Born in Syracuse, Sicily, in 287 BC, Archimedes was a polymath who made significant contributions to a wide range of fields, including mathematics, physics, engineering, and astronomy.

What grade did Albert Einstein get in math? ›

The report card, dated 3 October 1896 shows the grades obtained by Einstein in various subjects related to mathematics studied at the time. According to the report card, Einstein scored 6 in Algebra, Geometry, Darstellende geometrie (descriptive geometry) and Physics. He also scored 5 in Chemistry.

Did Einstein believe in math? ›

Albert Einstein, a towering figure in 20th-century physics, held mathematics in high regard and recognized its crucial role in scientific inquiry. Einstein believed that mathematics was not only a tool for scientific investigation but also an art form in its own right.

What are 4 math quotes from famous mathematicians? ›

Plato: "I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning." Archimedes: "Give me a place to stand, and I will move the earth." Rene Descartes: "Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare." Isaac Newton: "If I have been able to see further, it was only because I stood on the shoulders of giants."

What was Ramanujan's best quote? ›

Srinivasa Ramanujan Quotes

An equation for me has no meaning, unless it expresses a thought of God. No, it is a very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as a sum of two cubes in two different ways, the two ways being 13 + 123 and 93 + 103.

What is Ramanujan paradox? ›

Ramanujan summation / paradox is a technique developed by the mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan to assign values to certain divergent series. 2. It provides a way to regularize divergent series by introducing a parameter and analytically continuing the series to obtain a finite value.

What is math slogan? ›

Maths slogans are memorable phrases that invoke emotion remarkably. Create brand awareness to seek the attention of potential audiences. Catchy Math Slogans are cool wordplay of rhyming words that share the skills and passion of math lovers.

What is the math and happiness quote? ›

A mathematical formula for happiness:Reality divided by Expectations. There were two ways to be happy:improve your reality or lower your expectations. The 'Muse' is not an artistic mystery, but a mathematical equation. The gift are those ideas you think of as you drift to sleep.

What is a good math quote? ›

Without mathematics, there's nothing you can do. Everything around you is mathematics. Everything around you is numbers.” – Shakuntala Devi.

What is the most famous math question? ›

Famous Problems in Mathematics
  • The Four Colour Theorem.
  • The Trisection of an Angle.
  • Which are the 23 Hilbert Problems?
  • Unsolved Problems. Does there exist a number that is perfect and odd? Collatz Problem. Goldbach's conjecture. Twin primes conjecture.

What is the quote for math day? ›

Mathematics is the best thing in this world because it is true and logical.” “Mathematics is the biggest motivation because it starts from zero and goes up to infinity.”

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