It is always noteworthy that all those who seriously study this science [the theory of numbers] conceive a sort of passion for it.
Carl Friedrich GaussI confess that Fermat's Theorem as an isolated proposition has very little interest for me, because I could easily lay down a multitude of such propositions, which one could neither prove nor dispose of.
Carl Friedrich GaussMathematical discoveries, like springtime violets in the woods, have their season which no human can hasten or retard.
Carl Friedrich GaussYou have no idea, how much poetry there is in the calculation of a table of logarithms!
Carl Friedrich GaussHis second motto: Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy laws my services are bound.
Carl Friedrich Gauss[On Sophie Germain] When a person of the sex which, according to our customs and prejudices, must encounter infinitely more difficulties than men... succeeds nevertheless in surmounting these obstacles and penetrating the most obscure parts of [number theory], then without doubt she must have the noblest courage, quite extraordinary talents and superior genius.
Carl Friedrich Gauss