One can measure the importance of a scientific work by the number of earlier publications rendered superfluous by it.
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Other Quotes by "David Hilbert"

How thoroughly it is ingrained in mathematical science that every real advance goes hand in hand with the invention of sharper tools and simpler methods which, at the same time, assist in understanding earlier theories and in casting aside some more complicated developments.
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Mathematical science is in my opinion an indivisible whole, an organism whose vitality is conditioned upon the connection of its parts.
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Mathematics knows no races or geographic boundaries; for mathematics, the cultural world is one country.
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The art of doing mathematics consists in finding that special case which contains all the germs of generality.
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Galileo was no idiot. Only an idiot could believe that science requires martyrdom - that may be necessary in religion, but in time a scientific result will establish itself.
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