The art of doing mathematics consists in finding that special case which contains all the germs of generality.

One can measure the importance of a scientific work by the number of earlier publications rendered superfluous by it

He who seeks for methods without having a definite problem in mind seeks in the most part in vain.

I didn't work especially hard at mathematics at school, because I knew that's what I'd be doing later.

Galileo was no idiot. Only an idiot could believe that science requires martyrdom - that may be necessary in religion, but in time a scientific result will establish itself.

The tool which serves as intermediary between theory and practice, between thought and observation, is mathematics; it is mathematics which builds the linking bridges and gives the ever more reliable forms.

The further a mathematical theory is developed, the more harmoniously and uniformly does its construction proceed, and unsuspected relations are disclosed between hitherto separated branches of the science.