On the Internet you can often find a phrase attributed to the poet, comparing geometry and poetry. We decided to check whether the authorship of this quote really belongs to Pushkin.

The expression “Inspiration is needed in geometry no less than in poetry” is signed without any reservations with the name of Pushkin in popular online collections of quotes. Often a phrase indicating the authorship of the poet is cited on social networks: on the platform “Zen", in "VKontakte"and in Facebook.

The phrase “Inspiration is needed in geometry no less than in poetry” actually appears in Pushkin’s works. In his 16-volume complete works (published in 1937-1959) this statement published in volume 11. “Excerpts from letters, thoughts and comments,” among which there is a phrase about geometry and poetry, were first published in the literary almanac “Northern Flowers,” which was published in St. Petersburg by Anton Delvig, a poet, critic and lyceum friend of Pushkin. The almanac is dated 1828, but it was published at the end of December 1827; this year it is also dated in the collected works.

“Excerpts from Letters, Thoughts and Remarks” contains philosophical statements. Some of them indicate the original source, for example, Pushkin quotes from a philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal: “Everything that exceeds geometry exceeds us.” But in the case of the phrase about geometry and poetry, there is no such mention.

IN name index In addition to the 16-volume collected works, this quote is given again. The compilers explain that this is a modified quote from Jean d'Alembert - French philosopher, mathematician and co-author of the main monument of the Enlightenment, “Encyclopedias of Sciences, Arts and Crafts"

Title page of the first edition of the Encyclopedia, 1751. Source: Wikimedia Commons

D'Alembert actually has the right phrase, in preface to the 1763 edition of the Encyclopedia, in which the French philosopher and mathematician talks about the important role of each of the exact sciences.

“The imagination of a creative geometer is no less than that of a creative poet; Archimedes deserves a place next to Homer, Newton deserves a place next to Corneille.”

Pushkin was well acquainted with the works of French encyclopedists. How remembered his sister Olga Sergeevna, the library of their father Sergei Lvovich Pushkin “consisted of French classics and philosophers of the 18th century.” There was a complete 35-volume “Encyclopedia” in the poet’s personal library: he won it was put into cards by his friend Ivan Velikopolsky, who allegedly gave the books to Pushkin in 1826.

Thus, we can say with confidence that the phrase “Inspiration is needed in geometry no less than in poetry” is a slightly modified quote from the French philosopher Jean D’Alembert, which did not lose its original meaning in Pushkin’s retelling.

Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons