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Simas
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“Mathematics as an expression of the human mind reflects the active will, the contemplative reason, and the desire for aesthetic perfection.”
“Nobody has the right to not be offended. That right doesn't exist in any declaration I have ever read.
If you are offended it is your problem, and frankly lots of things offend lots of people.
I can walk into a bookshop and point out a number of books that I find very unattractive in what they say. But it doesn't occur to me to burn the bookshop down. If you don't like a book, read another book. If you start reading a book and you decide you don't like it, nobody is telling you to finish it.
To read a 600-page novel and then say that it has deeply offended you: well, you have done a lot of work to be offended.”
―
If you are offended it is your problem, and frankly lots of things offend lots of people.
I can walk into a bookshop and point out a number of books that I find very unattractive in what they say. But it doesn't occur to me to burn the bookshop down. If you don't like a book, read another book. If you start reading a book and you decide you don't like it, nobody is telling you to finish it.
To read a 600-page novel and then say that it has deeply offended you: well, you have done a lot of work to be offended.”
―
“Allegiance is a powerful force in human affairs; it will not do to treat someone as a mental serf if he is convinced that his thralldom is honorable and voluntary. From”
― Letters to a Young Contrarian
― Letters to a Young Contrarian
“But who prays for Satan? Who in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most, our one fellow and brother who most needed a friend yet had not a single one, the one sinner among us all who had the highest and clearest right to every Christian's daily and nightly prayers, for the plain and unassailable reason that his was the first and greatest need, he being among sinners the supremest?”
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“And the pleasures and rewards of the intellect are inseparable from angst, uncertainty, conflict and even despair.”
― Letters to a Young Contrarian
― Letters to a Young Contrarian
“Find meaning. Distinguish melancholy from sadness. Go out for a walk. It doesn’t have to be a romantic walk in the park, spring at its most spectacular moment, flowers and smells and outstanding poetical imagery smoothly transferring you into another world. It doesn’t have to be a walk during which you’ll have multiple life epiphanies and discover meanings no other brain ever managed to encounter. Do not be afraid of spending quality time by yourself. Find meaning or don’t find meaning but 'steal' some time and give it freely and exclusively to your own self. Opt for privacy and solitude. That doesn’t make you antisocial or cause you to reject the rest of the world. But you need to breathe. And you need to be.”
― Notebooks 1951-1959
― Notebooks 1951-1959
LThMath Book Club
— 318 members
— last activity Jan 26, 2022 08:18AM
In the past year I have wanted to read more books on mathematics, mathematicians and the history of mathematics. After half a year, I realized that it ...more
Simas’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Simas’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
442 books
|
154 friends
272 books
|
101 friends
211 books
|
72 friends
366 books
|
141 friends
598 books
|
160 friends
201 books
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60 friends
600 books
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225 friends
106 books
|
112 friends
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