Top highlights from The Housekeeper and the Professor
Solving a problem for which you know theres an answer is like climbing a mountain with a guide, along a trail someone else has laid. In mathematics, the truth is somewhere out there in a place no one knows, beyond all the beaten paths. And its not always at the top of the mountain. It might be in a crack on the smoothest cliff or somewhere deep in the valley.
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He treated Root exactly as he treated prime numbers. For him, primes were the base on which all other natural numbers relied; and children were the foundation of everything worthwhile in the adult world
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A problem isn't finished just because you've found the right answer.
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The Professor never really seemed to care whether we figured out the right answer to a problem. He preferred our wild, desperate guesses to silence, and he was even more delighted when those guesses led to new problems that took us beyond the original one. He had a special feeling for what he called the "correct miscalculation," for he believed that mistakes were often as revealing as the right answers.
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He preferred smart questions to smart answers.
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The room was filled with a kind of stillness. Not simply an absence of noise, but an accumulation of layers of silence...
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Soon after I began working for the Professor, I realized that he talked about numbers whenever he was unsure of what to say or do. Numbers were also his way of reaching out to the world. They were safe, a source of comfort.
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Among the many things that made the Professor an excellent teacher was the fact that he wasn't afraid to say 'we don't know.' For the Professor, there was no shame in admitting you didn't have the answer, it was a necessary step toward the truth. It was as important to teach us about the unknown or the unknowable as it was to teach us what had already been safely proven.
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...The pages and pages of complex, impenetrable calculations might have contained the secrets of the universe, copied out of God's notebook.
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The truly correct proof is one that strikes a harmonious balance between strength and flexibility. There are plenty of proofs that are technically correct but are messy and inelegant or counterintuitive. But it's not something you can put into words explaining why a formula is beautiful is like trying to explain why the stars are beautiful.
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It was clear that he didn't remember me from one day to the next. The note clipped to his sleeve simply informed him that it was not our first meeting, but it could not bring back the memory of the time we had spent together.
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Math has proven the existence of God, because it is absolute and without contradiction; but the devil must exist as well, because we cannot prove it
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Solving a problem for which you know there's an answer is like climbing a mountain with a guide, along a trail someone else has laid.
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Because he had been- and in many ways still was- such a brilliant man, he no doubt understood the nature of his memory problem. It wasn't pride that prevented him from asking for help but a deep aversion to causing more trouble than necessary for those of us who lived in the normal world.
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So you think that zero was there waiting for us when humans came into being,like the flowers and the stars? You should have more respect for human progress. We made the zero, through great pain and struggle.
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Are all things quantifiable, and all numbers fraught with poetic possibility?
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I prefer pi.
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The ancient Greeks thought there was no need to count something that was nothing. And since it was nothing, they held that it was impossible to express it as a figure. So someone had to overcome this reasonable assumption, someone had to figure out how to express nothing as a number. This unknown man from India made nonexistence exist.
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He had a special feeling for what he called the correct miscalculation, for he believed that mistakes were often as revealing as the right answers. This gave us confidence even when our best efforts came to nothing.
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he seemed convinced that childrens questions were much more important than those of an adult. He preferred smart questions to smart answers.
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In my imagination, I saw the creator of the universe sitting in some distant corner of the sky, weaving a pattern of delicate lace so fine that even the faintest light would shine through it. The lace stretches out infinitely in every direction, billowing gently in the cosmic breeze. You want desperately to touch it, hold it up to the light, rub it against your cheek. And all we ask is to be able to re-create the pattern, weave it again with numbers, somehow, in our own language; to make even the tiniest fragment our own, to bring it back to earth.
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I needed this eternal truth [...] I needed the sense that this invisible world was somehow propping up the visible one, that this one, true line extended infinitely, without width or area, confidently piercing through the shadows. Somehow, this line would help me find peace.
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A real line has only one dimension, and that means it is impossible to draw it on a piece of real paper.
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The mathematics stacks were as silent and empty as everapparently no one suspected the riches hidden there.
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They say it'll be even hotter tomorrow. that's how we spend the summer. complaining about the heat.
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He discounted the value of his own efforts, and seemed to feel that anyone would have done the same.
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Far from being amicable, the numbers seem to turn their backs on each other, and I couldn't find a pair with even the most tenuous connection, let alone this wonderfully intimate one. The Professor was right. My birthday and his watch had overcome great trials and tribulations to meet each other in the vast sea of numbers.
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A problem has a rhythm of its own, just like a piece of music, the Professor said. Once you get the rhythm, you get the sense of the problem as a whole, and you can see where the traps might be waiting.
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Eternal truths are ultimately invisible, and you won't find them in material things or natural phenomenon, or even in human emotions. Mathematics, however, can illuminate them, can give the expression in fact, nothing can prevent it from doing so.
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Any kind of uncertainty caused him pain, so we were determined to hide the time that had passed and the memories hed lost.
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His joy had little to do with the difficulty of the problem. Simple or hard, the pleasure was in sharing it with us.
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It wasnt pride that prevented him from asking for help but a deep aversion to causing more trouble than necessary for those of us who lived in the normal world.
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It seemed as though the secret of the universe had miraculously appeared right here at our feet, as though Gods notebook had opened under our bench.
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The Professor never really seemed to care whether we figured out the right answer to a problem. He preferred our wild, desperate guesses to silence, and he was even more delighted when those guesses led to new problems that took us beyond the original one.
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Root always showed amazing insight when it came to the Professor.
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They seemed so stubborn, resisting division by any number but one and themselves.
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Are you just going to stand there frying hamburgers while your child could be dying in a fire?
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A problem has a rhythm of its own, just like a piece of music. Once you get the rhythm, you get the sense of the problem as a whole, and you can see where the traps might be waiting.
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The mathematical order is beautiful precisely because it has no effect on the real world. Life isn't going to be easier, not is anyone going to make a fortune, just because they know something about prime numbers.
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The square root sign is a study one. It shelters all the numbers.
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Smudges of darkness were beginning to collect around the roots of the trees, but they were still faint, as if the night had agreed to hold off for a bit longer.
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I feel empty when Root isnt here, I said. I hadnt really been speaking to him, but the Professor murmured in reply, So, youre saying that theres a zero in you? I suppose thats what I mean, I said, nodding weakly. The person who discovered zero must have been remarkable, dont you think? Hasnt zero been around forever? How long is forever?
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I was impressed by the delicate weaving of the numbers. No matter how carefully you unraveled a thread, a single moment of inattention could leave you stranded, with no clue what to do next. In all his years of study, the Professor had managed to glimpse several pieces of the lace. I could only hope that some part of him remembered the exquisite pattern.
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The square root sign is a generous symbol, it gives shelter to all the numbers.
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There were no bookshelves in the little apartment where we lived, so the Professors study, with its stacks of volumes lining the walls, seemed magical to him.
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In these pages, the Professor had walked beyond beaten paths, looking for truth in a place no one knows.
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Matematyka jest jak gwiazdy, nie da si wyjani ich pikna.
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Two is the only even prime.
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Its like copying truths from Gods notebook, though we arent always sure where to find this notebook or when it will be open.
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He had a special feeling for what he called the correct miscalculation, for he believed that mistakes were often as revealing as the right answers.
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As I headed down the library steps, I turned back to look. The mathematics stacks were as silent and empty as ever. Apparently no one suspected the riches hidden there.
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Its the young who have to break the old records. Thats the way the world works,
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A fost doar un joc, obinuia s zic cu o voce mai degrab trist. Persoana care a formulat
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Profesorul avea nevoie de pace, ceea ce nu nsemna neaprat tcere complet. De fapt, nu prea s-l deranjeze cnd Radical alerga pe hol sau ddea tare sonorul radioului. Avea nevoie de o linite interioar pe care s n-o tulbure lumea de afar.
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Mi-am plimbat palma peste foi i am simit n vrful degetelor viaa pe care mi-o transmiteau ecuaiile scrise de Profesor. Se niruiau una dup alta, formnd un lung ir ca o funie rezistent care se aternea la picioarele mele. M-am apucat de ea i mi-am dat drumul n abis. Nu mai era nimic n
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Eternal truths are ultimately invisible, and you won't find them in material things or natural phenomena, or even in human emotions. Mathematics, however, can illuminate them, can give them expression in fact, nothing can prevent it from doing so.
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Not simply an absence of noise, but an accumulation of layers of silence, untouched by fallen hair or mold, silence that the Professor left behind as he wandered through the numbers, silence like a clear lake hidden in the depths of the forest.
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Am simit cu mirare c pmntul pe care stteam e susinut de o lume mai adnc, unde nu puteam ajunge dect dac urmam irul de cifre. Cuvintele erau neputincioase, i nu puteam spune dac m ndreptam spre adncul acelei lumi sau m nlam spre infinit. Un singur lucru tiam cu certitudine,
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