David Hilbert Quotes

No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man; no other idea has so fruitfully stimulated his intellect; yet no other concept stands in greater need of clarification than that of the infinite.

The poetic notion of infinity is far greater than that which is sponsored by any creed.

I am incapable of conceiving infinity, and yet I do not accept finity.

We can conceive of eternity because we cannot conceive of a cessation of time. We can conceive of infinite space because we cannot conceive of so much matter that our imagination will not stand upon the farthest star and see infinite space beyond.

Space is to place as eternity is to time.

If any philosopher had been asked for a definition of infinity, he might have produced some unintelligible rigmarole, but he would certainly not have been able to give a definition that had any meaning at all.

The Infinite cannot be measured. The plan of Nature is so immense, but she has no plan, no scheme, but to go on and on forever. What is size, what is time, distance, to the Infinite? Nothing. The Infinite knows no time, no space, no great, no small, no beginning, no end.

What I'm dealing with is so vast and great that it can't be called the truth. It's above the truth.

The cosmos is about the smallest hole that a man can hide his head in.

Love knows not distance; it hath no continent; its eyes are for the stars.

The future is wider than vision, and has no end.

Not to be limited by the greatest and yet to be contained in the tiniest—this is the divine

Infinity is almost impossible for an eight-year-old to grasp. It's an inquiring age, and you're beginning to shape your thoughts and questions about life in general at that stage.

What you see, but can't see over is as good as infinite.

Infinity is a way to describe the incomprehensible to the human mind. In a way, it notates a mystery. That kind of mystery exists in relationships. A lifetime is not enough to know someone else. It provides a brief glimpse.

I think the end is endless. It's either a big black hole or a big white light or both together. But it's totally meaningless, because even if someone would explain it, I wouldn't understand it.

All things are infinite both in number and in smallness; for the small also is infinite. And when they are all together, the parts are not clear and distinct because of their smallness

The vastness of Russia devours us.

There is a wide, yawning black infinity. In every direction, the extension is endless; the sensation of depth is overwhelming. And the darkness is immortal. Where light exists, it is pure, blazing, fierce; but light exists almost nowhere, and the blackness itself is also pure and blazing and fierce.

Out yonder there was this huge world...which stands before us like a great eternal riddle.

Numbers are limits, and perfection doesn't have limits.

I do not work within the confines of any realm. I work in the unique moment of duration.

The unknown is not measurable by the known. Time cannot measure the timeless, the eternal, that immensity which has no beginning and no end... when we try to measure something which is not measurable, we only get caught in words.

Infinity is the end. End without infinity is but a new beginning.

That which has no limitations, has no form.