Joseph Fourier

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"Mathematics compares the most diverse phenomena and discovers the secret analogies that unite them."

—Joseph Fourier (1768-1830)

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"The profound study of nature is the most fertile source of mathematical discovery."

—Joseph Fourier (1768-1830)

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"There cannot be a language more universal and more simple, more free from errors and obscurities...more worthy to express the invariable relations of all natural things [than mathematics]. [It interprets] all phenomena by the same language, as if to attest the unity and simplicity of the plan of the universe, and to make still more evident that unchangeable order which presides over all natural causes"

—Joseph Fourier (1768-1830)

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"Mathematical analysis is as extensive as nature itself; it defines all perceptible relations, measures times, spaces, forces, temperatures:;; this difficult science is formed slowly, but it preserves every principle which it has once acquired; it grows and strengthens itself incessantly in the midst of the many variations and errors of the human mind. It's chief attribute is clearness; it has no marks to express confused notations. It brings together phenomena the most diverse, and discovers the hidden analogies which unite them."

—Joseph Fourier (1768-1830)

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"Mathematical Analysis is as extensive as nature herself."

—Joseph Fourier (1768-1830)