George Boole Quotes
George Boole was an English mathematician, logician, and philosopher and one of the founders of mathematical logic. Almost entirely self-taught, he became professor of mathematics at Queen's College, Cork, and produced two short books, The Mathematical Analysis of Logic and An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, that recast traditional logic in algebraic form. The quotes below are attributed to George Boole, organized by topic.
Browse George Boole by topic
George Boole on Justice
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“I have spoken of the advantages of leisure and opportunity for improvement, as of a right to which you were entitled. I must now remind you that every right involves a responsibility. The greater our freedom from external restrictions, the more do we become the rightful subjects of the moral law within us. The less our accountability to man, the greater our accountability to a higher power. Such a”
George Boole, "Right Use of Leisure," cited in: James Hogg Titan Hogg's weekly instructor, (1847) p. 250 : Address on the Right Use of Leisure to the members of tho Lincoln Early Closing Association. -
“The last subject to which I am desirous to direct your attention as to a means of self-improvement, is that of philanthropic exertion for the good of others. I allude here more particularly to the efforts which you may be able to make for the benefit of those whose social position is inferior to your own. It is my deliberate conviction, founded on long and anxious consideration of the subject, tha”
George Boole, "Right Use of Leisure," cited in: James Hogg Titan Hogg's weekly instructor, (1847) p. 250; Also cited in: R. H. Hutton , " Professor Boole ," (1866), p. 153
George Boole on Knowledge
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Attributed to George Boole:
“The probability of a conclusion is determined by the probabilities of its premises.”
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“You will feel interested to know the fate of my mathematical speculations in Cambridge . One of the papers is already printed in the Mathematical Journal . Another, which I sent a short time ago, has been very favourably received, and will shortly be printed together with one I had previously sent.”
George Boole in letter to a friend, 1840, cited in: R. H. Hutton , " Professor Boole ," in: Henry Allon The British Quarterly Review. (1866), p. 147; Cited in Des MacHale. George Boole: his life and work, Boole Press, 1985. p. 52 -
“Boole to De Morgan , 19 June 1843; in: G.C. Smith. The Boole-DeMorgan Correspondence 1842-1864 , Oxford University Press 1982. p. 10”
Some months ago I took the liberty of troubling you for a reference to Laplace . In your reply for which it still remains to me to thank you, you were pleased to express an interest in the subject of investigation alluded to in my letter. I have now drawn up a paper embodying the principal results of the inquiry which I have had some thoughts of laying before the Royal Society. Before taking a ste -
“In presenting this Work to public notice, I deem it not irrelevant to observe, that speculations similar to those which it records have, at different periods, occupied my thoughts. In the spring of the present year my attention was directed to the question then moved between Sir W. Hamilton and Professor De Morgan ; and I was induced by the interest which it inspired, to resume the almost-forgotte”
p. i: Lead paragraph of the Preface; cited in: R. H. Hutton , " Professor Boole ," (1866), p. 157 -
“p. ii: Lead paragraph of the Introduction”
THEY who are acquainted with the present state of the theory of Symbolical Algebra, are aware, that the validity of the processes of analysis does not depend upon the interpretation of the symbols which are employed, but solely upon the laws of their combination. Every system of interpretation which does not affect the truth of the relations supposed, is equally admissible, and it is thus that the -
“1850s”
Letter to William Thomson (2 January 1851), indicating his early work on what has since become known as Boolean logic . -
“Probability is expectation founded upon partial knowledge. A perfect acquaintance with all the circumstances affecting the occurrence of an event would change expectation into certainty, and leave neither room nor demand for a theory of probabilities.”
An Investigation of the Laws of Thought(1854) | p. 244; Cited in: Michael J. Katz (1986) Templets and the Explanation of Complex Patterns, p. 123
George Boole on Life
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“Mr. Gregory : Late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and author of the -well-known Examples. Few in so short a life have done so much for science. The high sense which I entertain of his merits as a mathematician, is mingled with feelings of gratitude for much valuable assistance rendered to me in my earlier essays.”
George Boole " Mr Boole on a General Method in Analysis ," Philosophical Transactions, Vol. 134 (1844), p. 279, Footnote
George Boole on Mind
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Attributed to George Boole:
“The laws of thought are the laws of mathematics.”
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“To deduce the laws of the symbols of Logic from a consideration of those operations of the mind which are implied in the strict use of language as an instrument of reasoning.”
An Investigation of the Laws of Thought(1854) | p. 42 -
“There is not only a close analogy between the operations of the mind in general reasoning and its operations in the particular science of Algebra, but there is to a considerable extent an exact agreement in the laws by which the two classes of operations are conducted.”
An Investigation of the Laws of Thought(1854) | p. 6; As cited in: Leandro N. De Castro, Fernando J. Von Zuben, Recent Developments in Biologically Inspired Computing, Idea Group Inc (IGI), 2005 p. 236
George Boole on Politics
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“A successful attempt to express logical propositions by symbols, the laws of whose combinations should be founded upon the laws of the mental processes which they represent, would, so far, be a step towards a philosophical language.”
The Mathematical Analysis of Logic,1847 | p. 5
George Boole on Time
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“That to the existing forms of Analysis a quantitative interpretation is assigned, is the result of the circumstances by which those forms were determined, and is not to be construed into a universal condition of Analysis. It is upon the foundation of this general principle, that I purpose to establish the Calculus of Logic, and that I claim for it a place among the acknowledged forms of Mathematical Analysis, regardless that in its object and in its instruments it must at present stand alone.”
p. iii -
“That axiom of Metaphysicians which is termed the principle of contradiction and which affirms that it is impossible for anything to possess a quality, and in the same time not to possess it, is a consequence of the fundamental law of thought, whose expression is x²=x.”
An Investigation of the Laws of Thought(1854) | p. 49: as cited in: " Professor Boole's Mathematical theory " in: Henry Longueville Manse, Philosophical pamphlets, (1853), p. 6 -
“A treatise on differential equations(1859)”
p. v; cited in: Quotations by George Boole , MacTutor History of Mathematics, August 2010.
George Boole on Truth
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Attributed to George Boole:
“Logic is the science whose business it is to investigate the laws of valid reasoning.”
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Attributed to George Boole:
“Symbols obey laws of operation as numbers do.”
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Attributed to George Boole:
“Truth is the agreement of thought with itself.”
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“Of the many forms of false culture, a premature converse with abstractions is perhaps the most likely to prove fatal to the growth of a masculine vigour of intellect.”
A treatise on differential equations(1859) | p. vi; cited in: Quotations by George Boole , MacTutor History of Mathematics, August 2010.