One can measure the importance of a scientific work by the number of earlier publications rendered superfluous by it
David HilbertMathematics is a game played according to certain simple rules with meaningless marks on paper.
David HilbertNo other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man; no other idea has so fruitfully stimulated his intellect; yet no other concept stands in greater need of clarification than that of the infinite.
David Hilbert