It can be of no practical use to know that Pi is irrational, but if we can know, it surely would be intolerable not to know.

It can be of no practical use to know that Pi is irrational, but if we can know, it surely would be intolerable not to know.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about mathematics is that it is so surprising.

I met a man once who told me that far from believing in the square root of minus one, he didn't believe in minus one. This is at any rate a consistent attitude.

Algebra goes to the heart of the matter at it ignores the casual nature of particular cases.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about mathematics is that it is so surprising. The rules which we make up at the beginning seem ordinary and inevitable, but it is impossible to foresee their consequences. These have only been found out by long study, extending over many centuries. Much of our knowledge is due to a comparatively few great mathematicians such as Newton, Euler, Gauss, or Riemann; few careers can have been more satisfying than theirs. They have contributed something to human thought even more lasting than great literature, since it is independent of language.

Many of the proofs in mathematics are very long and intricate. Others, though not long, are very ingeniously constructed.