Penses

De la Blaise Pascal cititorii au reținut cîteva formule potrivite pentru conversațiile subțiri. Cea mai cunoscută dintre ele e, desigur, aceea în care omul e comparat cu o trestie firavă, pentru a-i sublinia (a cîta oară?) fragilitatea. Înțelepciunea populară a produs și alți termeni de comparație:......more

Religious Thoughts of a Mathematician 29 August 2016 - Paris, France When I was learning French I was rather thrown by the way their numbers work after about 60, as is demonstrated by this picture, which shows how English, German, and French construct the number 98: My first thought was 'this is abso......more

Pascal seems to have been born for greatness. At a young age he displayed an intense talent for mathematics, apparently deducing a few propositions of Euclid by himself; and he matured into one of the great mathematical minds of Europe, making fundamental contributions to the science of probability.......more

On the human nature: 'What a Chimera is man! What a novelty, a monster, a chaos, a contradiction, a prodigy! Judge of all things, an imbecile worm of the earth; depository of truth, and sewer of error and doubt; the glory and refuse of the universe.' 'This twofold nature of man is so evident that some......more