The mathematical fraternity is a little like a self-perpetuating priesthood. The mathematicians of today teach the mathematicians of tomorrow and, in effect, decide whom to admit to the priesthood.

The beginner should not be discouraged if he finds he does not have the prerequisites for reading the prerequisites.

Applied mathematics will always need pure mathematics just as anteaters will always need ants.

Mathematics is not a deductive science - that's a cliché. When you try to prove a theorem, you don't just list the hypotheses, and then start to reason. What you do is trial and error, experimentation, guesswork.

I read once that the true mark of a pro - at anything - is that he understands, loves, and is good at even the drudgery of his profession.

Feller was an ebullient man, who would rather be wrong than undecided.

The library is the mathematician's laboratory.