I am working with the excellent book of Stephen Abbott's Understanding Analysis. The author (p. 3) quotes Kronecker:
The natural numbers are the work of God. All the rest is the work of the mankind.
As far as I know the exact quote attributed to Kronecker reads:
God made the integers; all else is the work of man.
[Die ganzen Zahlen hat der liebe Gott gemacht, alles andere ist Menschenwerk
In German ganzen Zahlen stands for integer numbers; natürlichen Zahlen means natural number]
Is it this just a simple misquote of the author or am I missing something here? Thanks in advance.
Found a free preview. In context, the author does not think the reader yet knows what the word integers means. The quote is paraphrased, very much on purpose.