Calculus required continuity, and continuity was supposed to require the infinitely little; but nobody could discover what the infinitely little might be.

Remote from human passions, remote even from the pitiful facts of nature, the generations have gradually created an ordered cosmos [mathematics], where pure thought can dwell in its natural home.

[Industrialism's soon diminishing] capacity to supply human needs could be prevented if men exercised any restraint or foresight in their present frenzied exploitation.

One of the most painful circumstances of recent advances in science is that each one makes us know less than we thought we did

To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.

My whole religion is this: do every duty, and expect no reward for it, either here or hereafter.

I did not, however, commit suicide, because I wished to know more of mathematics.