Storey Quotes (1 quote)
In most sciences one generation tears down what another has built, and what one has established, another undoes. In mathematics alone each generation adds a new storey to the old structure.
In Die Entwickelung der Mathematik in den letzten Jahrhunderten (1869), 34. As translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-book (1914), 14. From the original German, “In den meisten Wissenschaften pflegt eine Generation das niederzureissen, was die andere gebaut, und was jene gesetzt, hebt diese auf. In der Mathematik allein setzt jede Generation ein neues Stockwerk auf den alten Unterbau.”
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
