Before creation, God did just pure mathematics. Then He thought it would be a pleasant change to do some applied.

Try a hard problem. You may not solve it, but you will prove something else.

The first test of potential in mathematics is whether you can get anything out of geometry.

The infinitely competent can be uncreative.

The surprising thing about this paper is that a man who could write it would.

A precisian professor had the habit of saying: "... quartic polynomial ax^4+bx^3+cx^2+dx+e , where e need not be the base of the natural logarithms."

I've been giving this lecture to first-year classes for over twenty-five years. You'd think they would begin to understand it by now.

A linguist would be shocked to learn that if a set is not closed this does not mean that it is open, or again that "E is dense in E" does not mean the same thing as "E is dense in itself".

A good mathematical joke is better, and better mathematics, than a dozen mediocre papers.

I listen only to Bach, Beethoven or Mozart. Life is too short to waste on other composers.

Mathematics is a dangerous profession; an appreciable proportion of us go mad.

Hold dear and true friends close to your heart, it matters not where you find them, only that you treat them with love and respect always.

Home at that moment was a starless night, a steady wind, not a human to be seen.

Three Italians sitting around a kitchen table without food or drink is a sure sign of trouble.

Silos build the wall in people’s minds and tie the knots in their hearts.

I've been very fortunate in the things I've had in my life. But, at the same time, I wish I had the same types of memories as everyone else.

The feminine in each of us longs for deeper love and tries to find it in intimate relationship, family, or friends.

I have a huge rib cage, which is why I can hold a note out until I'm blue in the face... because I have such a big lung capacity.

Every man is a moon; he has a side no one sees.

Some men mistake generosity for charity: these flatter themselves that they are giving gratuitously, whilst they are merely rewarding secret services offered their vanity.

If we knew that tonight we were going to go blind, we would take a long, last real look at every blade of grass, every cloud formation, every speck of dust, every rainbow, raindrop-everything.