Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
When I entered Harvard, my background was mostly combinatorics and algebra.
Every human activity, good or bad, except mathematics, must come to an end.
Wrong people are wrong because they use their freedom to deny it to others.
A mathematician's reputation rests on the number of bad proofs he has given.
It is more important that a proposition be interesting than that it be true.
The centre of gravity of any cylinder is the point of bisection of the axis.
The moving power of mathematical invention is not reasoning but imagination.
Bottomless wonders spring from simple rules, which are repeated without end.
The Mandelbrot set is the most complex mathematical object known to mankind.
All the maxims have been written. It only remains to put them into practice.
The law required what it could not give. Grace gives that which it requires.
It is not possible to have reasonable grounds for not believing in miracles.
Life stands before me like an eternal spring with new and brilliant clothes.
One cannot guess the real difficulties of a problem before having solved it.
Perhaps it would be better for science, that all criticism should be avowed.
Point set topology is a disease from which the human race will soon recover.
It is through science that we prove, but through intuition that we discover.
In mathematics alone each generations adds a new story to the old structure.
I am worn out by the insults and vexations that this work brings down on us.
Discover the force of the skies O Men: once recognised it can be put to use.
Try a hard problem. You may not solve it, but you will prove something else.
Classes will dull your mind, destroy the potential for authentic creativity.
Faith is a response to evidence, not a rejoicing in the absence of evidence.
It will be another million years, at least, before we understand the primes.
Television is something the Russians invented to destroy American education.
Algebra reverses the relative importance of the factors in ordinary language.
However impenetrable it seems, if you don't try it, then you can never do it.
We need to create a society in which civility rules over cynicism and apathy.
Give me a place to stand, and a lever long enough, and I will move the world.
A formula can be very simple, and create a universe of bottomless complexity.
Don't try to add more years to your life. Better add more life to your years.
Force rules the world-not opinion; but it is opinion that makes use of force.
Our achievements of today are but the sum total of our thoughts of yesterday.
All sorrow has its root in man's inability to sit quiet in a room by himself.
Mathematics is the queen of science, and arithmetic the queen of mathematics.
The economy of human time is the next advantage of machinery in manufactures.
I won't be satisfied until I've put the entire security industry out of work.
Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal interface.
We should allow others' excellences, to preserve a modest opinion of our own.
The surprising thing about this paper is that a man who could write it would.
Why should I be worried about dying? It's not going to happen in my lifetime!
Beware of finding what you're looking for. A favorite aphorism he often used.
Speak out in acts; the time for words has passed, and only deeds will suffice.
Nature, even in the act of satisfying anticipation, often provides a surprise.
I would be a billionaire if I was looking to be a selfish boss. That's not me.
We must learn our limits. We are all something, but none of us are everything.
Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.
What amazes me most is to see that everyone is not amazed at his own weakness.
Custom creates the whole of equity, for the simple reason that it is accepted.
Imagination is the deceptive part in man, the mistress of error and falsehood.