What is mathematical group?

Famous quotes containing the words mathematical and/or group:

    It is by a mathematical point only that we are wise, as the sailor or the fugitive slave keeps the polestar in his eye; but that is sufficient guidance for all our life. We may not arrive at our port within a calculable period, but we would preserve the true course.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    A little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, have rendered the great government of the United States helpless and contemptible.
    Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)