Mathematics as an expression of the human mind reflects the active will, the contemplative reason, and the desire for aesthetic perfection. Its basic elements are logic and intuition, analysis and construction, generality and individuality. Though different traditions may emphasize different aspects, it is only the interplay of these antithetic forces and the struggle for their synthesis that constitute the life, usefulness, and supreme value of mathematical science.
Richard CourantCalculus is the outcome of a dramatic intellectual struggle which has lasted for twenty-five hundred years.
Richard CourantMathematics as an expression of the human mind reflects the active will, the contemplative reason, and the desire for aesthetic perfection.
Richard CourantStarting in the seventeenth century, the general theory of extreme values - maxima and minima - has become one of the systematic integrating principles of science.
Richard CourantWith an absurd oversimplification, the 'invention' of the calculus is sometimes ascribed to two men, Newton and Leibniz. In reality, the calculus is the product of a long evolution that was neither initiated nor terminated by Newton and Leibniz, but in which both played a decisive part.
Richard Courant