Marcus du Sautoy Quotes

The power of mathematics is often to change one thing into another, to change geometry into language.

Mathematics is a place where you can do things which you can’t do in the real world.

If you can make yourself symmetrical, you’re sending out a sign that you’ve got good genes, you’ve got a good upbringing and therefore you’ll make a good mate.

When people ask me what my religion is, I say it’s the Arsenal.

Artists realise that mathematicians have a way of looking at the world that can make them see things differently.

We need scientists and mathematicians explaining why they are excited about their subjects but also why they are important for solving social problems, informing political debate and for the economy.

I think science is a foreign land for many people, so I think of my role as an ambassador‘s job.

I think my primary audience is in some sense an adult audience, because I think that will then have a knock-on effect for children.

The point is with good maths skills you have just wonderful opportunities and if you don’t have good maths skills, there are just so many things that you won’t be able to do.

My big thesis is that although the world looks messy and chaotic, if you translate it into the world of numbers and shapes, patterns emerge and you start to understand why things are the way they are.

The best mobile phone had the best mathematician. They know how to fit a huge amount of data into a small amount of space. How to do things efficiently, how to do them cleverly.

The stage is like a laboratory where you can run theatrical experiments, imposing interesting conditions on the cast or story and seeing how they pan out. Each new play is like creating a tiny virtual universe enclosed by the confines of the stage.

It’s my belief that you can take everyone down a logical path if you take them slowly enough, and the trouble is that mathematical brains can get scrambled a little bit on the way. You get a bad teacher, it messes you up for the rest of the journey.

You know, I’m not terribly fast at my times tables, because that’s not what I think mathematics is about.

The wonderful thing about maths is it’s a totally logical subject, and a pathway has been marked out. I think a lot of these things can be crystallised in something quite essential, that people can get. If I can’t explain it, I realise that’s probably because I don’t completely understand it myself.

Mathematics has beauty and romance. It’s not a boring place to be, the mathematical world. It’s an extraordinary place; it’s worth spending time there.

It’s important to me that no one can say I’m not pumping out high-level research.