We often hear that mathematics consists mainly of "proving theorems." Is a writer's job mainly that of "writing sentences?"

God created infinity, and man, unable to understand infinity, had to invent finite sets.

If we have no idea why a statement is true, we can still prove it by induction.

Nature imitates mathematics.

The progress of mathematics can be viewed as progress from the infinite to the finite.

There is something in statistics that makes it very similar to astrology.

[In mathematics] There are two kinds of mistakes. There are fatal mistakes that destroy a theory, but there are also contingent ones, which are useful in testing the stability of a theory.

Are mathematical ideas invented or discovered? This question has been repeatedly posed by philosophers through the ages and will probably be with us forever.

Running overtime is the one unforgivable error a lecturer can make. After fifty minutes (one microcentury as von Neumann used to say) everybody's attention will turn elsewhere.

It is a common public relations gimmick to give the entire credit for the solution of famous problems to the one mathematician who is responsible for the last step.

The pendulum of mathematics swings back and forth towards abstraction and away from it with a timing that remains to be estimated.

Although it is great to know, it is better to be told, 'I love you.' Whose day can you make better today by simply saying, 'I love you?' Now do the thing you know better to do.

Men are April when they woo, December when they wed. Maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.

The truth is often a terrible weapon of aggression. It is possible to lie, and even to murder, with the truth.

Solitude, if rightly used, becomes not only a privilege but a necessity. Only a superficial soul fears to fraternize with itself.

A covenant is an agreement between God and man, an accord whose terms are set by God.

I was approached by Oxfam to go to Mali as their ambassador and get involved in their various initiatives out there. But I felt that was missing the point of using me, a musician

[D]rilling and arming, when carried on on a national scale, excite whole populations to frenzies which end in war.

Everything, everything seemed once-upon-a-time.

There are literally as many ideas as there are organisms.

If we can say, "I loved, and I received a lot of love," then great. That's enough.