Clifford Geertz Quotes

It seems that if one is working from the point of view of getting beauty in one's equations, and if one has really a sound insight, one is on a sure line of progress.

The Geometer has the special privilege to carry out, by abstraction, all constructions by means of the intellect. Who, then, would wish to prevent me from freely considering figures hanging on a balance imagined to be at an infinite distance beyond the confines of the world?

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.

When something is beautiful in math, everything is just perfectly lined up, and you see through sheer thought that something really beautiful can take place.

Science is spectral analysis. Art is light synthesis.

We in science are spoiled by the success of mathematics. Mathematics is the study of problems so simple that they have good solutions.

I'm not someone who calculates things.

Being used to scientific terminology and theory it was always natural for me to push this stuff into songs.

You think about the beauty and what you want to transmit. If I think about designing, I can't design.

Textbook science is beautiful! Textbook science is comprehensible, unlike mere fascinating words that can never be truly beautiful. Elementary science textbooks describe simple theories, and simplicity is the core of scientific beauty. Fascinating words have no power, nor yet any meaning, without the math.

The curiosity of the human mind is essential if you want citizens who think rather than accept the first nonsense they come to.

To possess taste, one must have some soul.

The key to wisdom is this - constant and frequent questioning, for by doubting we are led to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth.

I guess I'm a very keen observer, and I'd like to think I have a good imagination.

Mathematical reasoning may be regarded rather schematically as the exercise of a combination of two facilities, which we may call intuition and ingenuity.

Imagination is a poor matter when it has to part company with understanding.

It is impossible to be a mathematician without being a poet in soul.

If you have Darwin, Christ and Nietzsche, they're all going to talk at once. You need somebody who listens.

Part of the strength of science is that it has tended to attract individuals who love knowledge and the creation of it. ... Thus, it is the communication process which is at the core of the vitality and integrity of science.

Sometimes I implant thoughts, sometimes I extract thoughts, but I don't like to explain it too much. It's based on science, deduction, and reasoning - it's a bit like what 'Sherlock' does, except that's a dramatised version. I look at every clue around me.

The truth is, as you know, people like us look at what's happening in the world, and then we project it forward. We think, 'If I know A and B, then I've got to know that C and D are coming,' and that's kind of the way it's been with my fiction.

Intellectuals are people who manage the world in their head. They look at life and try to see some kind of truth, and if they cannot find it, they attempt to create it.

For my first fragrance, I wanted to capture the essence of a woman's strength and beauty.

The best option that you can have as an actor is pure instinct and you should be able to protect your instinct. Information can either cloud your instinct or aid it.

There's a beauty to math. Math is so simple. It's just one step after the next.