It is almost as hard to define mathematics as it is to define economics, and one is tempted to fall back on the famous old definition attributed to Jacob Viner, "Economics is what economists do," and say that mathematics is what mathematicians do. A large part of mathematics deals with the formal relations of quantities or numbers.

Accounting for the most part, remains a legalistic and traditional practice, almost immune to self-criticism by scientific methods.

Where there is hypocrisy, there is hope.

Theories without facts may be barren, but facts without theories are meaningless.

Conventions of generality and mathematical elegance may be just as much barriers to the attainment and diffusion of knowledge as may contentment with particularity and literary vagueness... It may well be that the slovenly and literary borderland between economics and sociology will be the most fruitful building ground during the years to come and that mathematical economics will remain too flawless in its perfection to be very fruitful.

Economists and technologists bring the "bits", but it requires the social scientists and humanists to bring the "wits.

Economists are like computers. They need to have facts punched into them.