#numbers

Mathematicians call them twin primes: pairs of prime numbers that are close to each other, almost neighbors, but between them there is always an even number that prevents them from truly touching. Numbers like 11 and 13, like 17 and 19, 41 and 43. If you have the patience to go on counting, you discover that these pairs gradually become rarer. You encounter increasingly isolated primes, lost in that silent, measured space made only of ciphers, and you develop a distressing presentiment that the pairs encountered up until that point were accidental, that solitude is the true destiny. Then, just when you’re about to surrender, when you no longer have the desire to go on counting, you come across another pair of twins, clutching each other tightly. There is a common conviction among mathematicians that however far you go, there will always be another two, even if no one can say where exactly, until they are discovered. Mattia thought that he and Alice were like that, twin primes, alone and lost, close but not close enough to really touch each other. He had never told her that. When he imagined confessing these things to her, the thin layer of sweat on his hands evaporated completely and for a good ten minutes he was no longer capable of touching anything. ↗

— Paolo Giordano

#the-solitude-of-prime-numbers #imagination

You'll get used to it. In the end you won't even notice it anymore," he said. "How is that possible? It will always be there, right before my eyes." "Exactly," said Mattia. "Which is precisely why you won't see it anymore. ↗

— Paolo Giordano

#the-solitute-of-prime-numbers #solitude

I'm looking for backing for an unauthorized auto-biography that I am writing. Hopefully, this will sell in such huge numbers that I will be able to sue myself for an extraordinary amount of money and finance the film version in which I will play everybody. ↗

— David Bowie

#am #amount #backing #everybody #extraordinary

Quarreling over food and drink, having neither scruples nor shame, not knowing right from wrong, not trying to avoid death or injury, not fearful of greater strength or of greater numbers, greedily aware only of food and drink - such is the bravery of the dog and boar. ↗

— Xun Zi

#aware #bravery #death #dog #drink

Think of the earth as a living organism that is being attacked by billions of bacteria whose numbers double every forty years. Either the host dies, or the virus dies, or both die. ↗

— Gore Vidal

#bacteria #being #billions #both #die

I mean it's the most objective industry in the world. If your numbers stink, you're out. If your numbers are good, you get more money. It's the most Darwinian, it's beautiful, it's brutal, it works. ↗

— Jim Cramer

#brutal #darwinian #get #good #i

It's a tough thing to know that when you're making your album, you're going to end up collaborating with, say, Wal-Mart, on your artwork. That just sucks. And the pressure behind getting the numbers real fast is, to me, dizzying. ↗

— Ben Folds

#artwork #behind #collaborating #dizzying #end

I know about having days off. They can be helpful sometimes, especially late in the year. It's just key to go out there and establish early, especially in this park where they can put up some crooked numbers early. ↗

— Dontrelle Willis

#crooked #days #early #especially #establish

You know too well the forces which compose their army to dread their superior numbers. ↗

— James Wolfe

#compose #dread #forces #know #numbers

I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers done. ↗

— Steven Wright

#book #done #got #i #numbers