It May Be True, That Men, Who

To Such Idle Talk It Might Further Be Added: That Whenever A Certain Exclusive Occupation Is Coupled With Specific Shortcomings, It Is Likewise Almost Certainly Divorced From Certain Other Shortcomings.

Sophie Germain Proved To The World That Even A Woman Can Accomplish Something In The Most Rigorous And Abstract Of Sciences And For That Reason Would Well Have Deserved An Honorary Degree.

If Others Would But Reflect On Mathematical Truths As Deeply And As Continuously As I Have, They Would Make My Discoveries.

That This Subject [of Imaginary Magnitudes] Has Hitherto Been Considered From The Wrong Point Of View And Surrounded By A Mysterious Obscurity, Is To Be Attributed Largely To An Ill-adapted Notation. If, For Example, +1, -1, And The Square Root Of -1 Had Been Called Direct, Inverse And Lateral Units, Instead Of Positive, Negative And Imaginary (or Even Impossible), Such An Obscurity Would Have Been Out Of The Question.

A Great Part Of Its Theories Derives An Additional Charm From The Peculiarity That Important Propositions, With The Impress Of Simplicity On Them, Are Often Easily Discovered By Induction, And Yet Are Of So Profound A Character That We Cannot Find The Demonstrations Till After Many Vain Attempts; And Even Then, When We Do Succeed, It Is Often By Some Tedious And Artificial Process, While The Simple Methods May Long Remain Concealed.