Number Patterns Quotes

It is strange that we know so little about the properties of numbers. They are our handiwork, yet they baffle us; we can fathom only a few of their intricacies. Having defined their attributes and prescribed their behavior, we are hard pressed to perceive the implications of our formulas.

The creator of the universe works in mysterious ways. But he uses a base ten counting system and likes round numbers.

I can show you that the art of calculation has to do with odd and even numbers in their numerical relations to themselves and to each other.

All results of the profoundest mathematical investigation must ultimately be expressible in the simple form of properties of the integers.

In the simplest array of digits [Ramanujan] detected wonderful properties: congruences, symmetries and relationships which had escaped the notice of even the outstandingly gifted theoreticians.

I like even numbers.

Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them.

Why do we believe that in all matters the odd numbers are more powerful?

I read that MTV's Real World got 40,000 applications. That's amazing, such an even number. You would have thought it would be 40,008.

Squaring numbers is a symmetrical process that I like very much. And when I divide one number by another, say, 13 divided by 97, I see a spiral rotating downwards in larger and larger loops that seem to warp and curve. The shapes coalesce into the right number. I never write anything down.

I do think in numbers. My mind works that way.

Two times two is twenty-two, four times four is forty-four. When numbers get serious, they leave a mark on your door.

God may not play dice with the universe, but something strange is going on with the prime numbers.

Primes seem to me to be these unarbitrary, unique, fated things. It cannot be coincidence that the mythical numbers of storytelling like 3, 7, and 13 are random. The lower-end primes have incredible resonance in fiction and art.

The higher arithmetic presents us with an inexhaustible store of interesting truths - of truths, too, which are not isolated, but stand in a close internal connection, and between which, as our knowledge increases, we are continually discovering new and sometimes wholly unexpected ties.