Augustin-Louis Cauchy Quotes

There is no let up! No end to it! Accursed problems! Innumerable calculations. Endless fighting. Signs. Formulas. Theorems besetting me from dawn to dusk!

Sur un nouveau genre de calcul, 1826.

... very often the laws derived by physicists from a large number of observations are not rigorous, but approximate.

Original: Je suis chrétien, c'est-à-dire que je crois à la divinité de Jésus-Christ, avec Tycho-rahé, Copernic, Descartes, Newton, Fermat, Leibnitz, Pascal, Grimaldi, Enler, Guldin, Boscovich, Gerdil, avec tous les grands astronomes, tous les grands hysiciens, tous les grands géomètres des siècles passés.

As translated by Julio Antonio Gonzalo (2008). The Intelligible Universe: An Overview of the Last Thirteen Billion Years. World Scientific. p. 301.

I am a sincere Catholic as it were Corneille, Racine, La Bruyère, Bossnet, Bourdaloue, Fènelon, as were and still are so many of the most of the honor of out science, philosophy and literature, and have conferred such brilliant ustre on our Academies. I share the deep conviction openly manifested in words, deeds and writings by so many savants of the first rank, by a Ruffini, a Haüy, a Laënnec, an Ampere, a Pelletier, a Freycinet, a Coriolis and I avoid naming any of those living, for fear of paining their podesty. I may at least be allowed to say that I loved to recognize all the noble generosity of the Christian Faith in my illustrious friends the creator of Crystallography (Haüy), the introducers of quinine and stethoscope (Pelletier and Laënnec), the famous voyager on board of the 'Urania', and the immortal founders of the theory of Dynamic Electricity (Frencinet and Ampère).

Augustin-Louis Cauchy (1850). Considérations sur les ordres religieux adressées aux amis des sciences. Pommeret et Moreau. p. 26.

Residues arise … naturally in several branches of analysis … . Their consideration provides simple and easy-to-use methods, which are applicable to a large number of diverse questions, and some new results … .

... très souvent les lois particulières déduites par les physiciens d'un grand nombre d'observations ne sont pas rigoureuses, mais approchées.

I am a Christian, that is, I believe in the divinity of Christ, as did Tycho Brahe, Copernicus, Descartes, Newton, Fermat, Leibniz, Pascal, Grimaldi, Euler, Guldin; Boscovich, Gerdil, as did all the great astronomers, physicist and geometricians of past ages.