One of the endlessly alluring aspects of mathematics is that its thorniest paradoxes have a way of blooming into beautiful theories.Collection: Beautiful
One began to hear it said that World War I was the chemists' war, World War II was the physicists' war, World War III (may it never come) will be the mathematicians' war.Collection: War
Most writers on the subject seem to agree that the typical working mathematician is a Platonist on weekdays and a formalist on Sundays.Collection: Sunday
In the realm of ideas, of mental objects, those ideas whose properties are reproducible are called mathematical objects, and the study of mental objects with reproducible properties is called mathematics.Collection: Ideas
Blindness to the aesthetic element in mathematics is widespread and can account for a feeling that mathematics is dry as dust, as exciting as a telephone book... Contrariwise, appreciation of this element makes the subject live in a wonderful manner and burn as no other creation of the human mind seems to do.Collection: Appreciation
The numbers are a catalyst that can help turn raving madmen into polite humans.Collection: Math
The inner circle of pure mathematicians will respond to the book with delight.Collection: Book