(Title of an interview with
the late Paul Halmos, mathematician)
From a 1990 interview:
“What’s the best part of being a mathematician? I’m not a religious man, but it’s almost like being in touch with God when you’re thinking about mathematics. God is keeping secrets from us, and it’s fun to try to learn some of the secrets.”
I personally prefer Annie Dillard on God:
“… if Holy the Firm is matter at its dullest, Aristotle’s materia prima, absolute zero, and since Holy the Firm is in touch with the Absolute at base, then the circle is unbroken. And it is…. Holy the Firm is in short the philosopher’s stone.”
Some other versions of
the philosopher’s stone:
April 28, 2004:
This last has the virtue of
being connected with Halmos
via his remarks during the
“In Touch with God” interview:
“Combinatorics, the finite case, is where the genuine, deep insight is.”
See also the remark of Halmos that serves as an epigraph to Theme and Variations.
the 4×9 black rectangle
has also served
at least one interpreter
as a philosopher’s stone,
and is also the original
“Halmos tombstone.”