Mathematics may be the queen of the sciences and therefore entitled to royal perogatives, but the queen who loses touch with her subjects may loose support and even be deprived of her realm. Mathematicians may like to rise into the clouds of abstract thought, but they should and indeed they must, return to earth for nourishing food or else die of mental starvation. They are on safer and saner ground when they stay close to nature. As Wordsworth put it, “Wisdom oft is nearer when we stoop than when we soar.”
- - Mathematics and the Physical World by Morris Kline, 1981.
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