Introduction

These 100-odd quotes come from a variety of sources, from Wikipedia, to the MacTutor library, to other collections of quotes, to things I’ve overheard. It’s impossible, sadly, for me to figure out exactly where I heard each of these things — at least a couple are probably apocryphal, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend using this as a primary source for anything.

They’re loosely organised, sometimes funny, generally thoughtful — like I try to be.

If you come across other mathematical quotes worthy of inclusion, let me know (colin@flyingcoloursmaths.co.uk) — I’m always looking to increase my collection!

About Colin

Hi! I’m Colin.

I’m a maths tutor based in Poole, Dorset; I’m the author of Basic Maths For Dummies and a couple of other numeracy books in the series; and in a former life I was a rocket scientist, sorta[1].

And I know a fair bit about maths. More to the point, since I teach it one-on-one all the time, I have a good idea of how to explain it so it stays taught. I’m going to be working on books covering the other modules and boards, so please get in touch if you have any questions you’d like me to cover. My email is colin@flyingcoloursmaths.co.uk , or you can reach me on Twitter — I’m @icecolbeveridge. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

When I’m not teaching or writing, I’m probably in the coffee shop or playing guitar. Or, once I’m over my injury, training for a 10k.

Also by Colin Beveridge

For Dummies series

Basic Maths For Dummies

Numeracy Tests For Dummies

Basic Maths Practice Problems For Dummies

20 Questions series

20 Questions on EdExcel C1 Maths

20 Questions on EdExcel C2 Maths: Logarithms

20 Questions on EdExcel C3 Maths: Trigonometry

20 Questions on EdExcel C4 Maths: Integration

20 Questions on EdExcel S1 Maths: Probability

Other

The Little Algebra Book (with Stuart Beveridge)

Definitions

Any respectable mathematics writing starts with some definitions.

“One and one and one is three.”

— John Lennon (1940-1980), peacenik, revolutionary, walrus.

A nice gentle start: hard to argue with John on this one.

"Science is everything we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else.”

— Donald Knuth (1938-), inventor of TeX, bane of my Ph.D.

As working definitions go, I think this is difficult to beat.

“Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.”

— Richard Feynman (1918-1988), poster-child for eccentric-but-cool scientists, Nobel Prize winner.

… Although Feynman, in his usual style, comes up with something that works just as well.

“Science is not a collection of truths. It is a continuing exploration of mysteries.”

— Freeman Dyson (1923-), only person quoted who looks exactly like I expected him to.

A third definition of science, and another good one.

“Maths is a game played according to certain simple rules with meaningless marks on paper.”

— David Hilbert (1862-1943), infinite hotelier, mathematical revolutionary, native of Königsberg with 23 problems (but a bridge ain’t one).

While I like my maths to mean something, I have a nagging suspicion that Hilbert was right.

"Mathematics: a branch of physics in which the experiments are cheap.”

— V. I. Arnold (1937-2010), enemy of Bourbaki, topologist, wit.

I’ve heard it said that maths is the second-cheapest department to run, because you just need paper, pencils and a bin. Economics is a bit cheaper because they don’t use the bin.

“Mathematics is only the art of saying the same thing in different words.”

— Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), pursuer of lost causes, philosopher, hero.

Russell is one of the most quotable people ever to have lived (my copy of his Autobiography is covered in underlined passages) but, for someone who spent a decade trying to prove all of maths,  it’s a shame this is the best I could come up with.

“Young man, in mathematics, you don’t understand things. You just get used to them.”

— John von Neumann (1903-1957), polymath, quantum theorist, father of game theory, legend.

If I had to pick one quote to put on my wall, it’d be this one. If John von Neumann — possibly the greatest mathematician[2] of the 20th century — doesn’t understand stuff, it gives the rest of us some hope.

“Mathematics is written for mathematicians.”

— Nicholaus Copernicus (1473-1543), only Renaissance man who didn’t think the earth revolved around him.

I can’t tell whether this is a good or a bad thing in Copernicus’s mediaeval mind — it’s a bad thing for me, as there’s a bridge between most people and the beauty of maths. Which means you’d have every right to totally miss the Hilbert joke.

“Mathematics is no more computation than typing is literature.”

— John Allen Paulos (1945-), Enron investor with wacky hair.

Wacky hair or no, Paulos quite nicely defines what maths is not. Numeracy is vital, but it’s nothing like the whole of maths.

“Simplify, simplify.”

— Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), simplifier.

I’ve not read Walden, but I gather it’s about making life simpler. So is maths, if you do it right.

“Structures are the weapons of the mathematician.”

— Bourbaki, rigorous nom-de-guerre.

When I was at school, we just used compasses, but I guess structures are more mathematically sound.

“Mathematical proofs, like diamonds, are hard as well as clear, and will be touched with nothing but strict reasoning.”

— John Locke (1632-1704), social contractor.

I get shivers reading this one: diamonds, hard as well as clear. I think Kovalevskaya may have been right.

“Pure mathematics, may it never be of any use to anyone.”

— H. J. S. Smith (1826-1883), purist.

As a toast, this is up there with “Scotland: may you win the next World Cup.” Lovely idea, but despite pure mathematicians best efforts to be entirely useless, their work keeps finding uses.

“Statistics: the mathematical theory of ignorance.”

— Morris Kline (1908-1992), storyteller, professor.

This is one of those great quotes that sounds like a put-down but works better the more you think about it. To me, it’s a natural extension of Galileo.

“There are two kinds of statistics: the kind you look up, and the kind you make up.”

— Rex Stout (1886-1975), best mystery writer of the century.

I couldn’t find any maths quotes by Hammett or Chandler, but I doubt they’d have come up with anything more bad-ass than this.

“Natural selection is a mechanism for generating an exceedingly high degree of improbability.”

— R. A. Fisher (1890-1962), father of modern statistics.

“Explain Darwin in 13 words, Ron.” “Sure thing!”

“Hofstadter’s Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even if you take Hofstadter’s Law into account.”

— Douglas R. Hofstadter (1945-), author of my favourite book ever.

I wanted to have this book finished by now.

“Beveridge's First Law: Don't f*ck about with infinity.”

— Colin Beveridge (1977-), world’s greatest mathematician, author, liar.

I imagine it’s really bad form to include yourself in a list of great mathematical quotes, however great they are. This is good advice for statisticians and everyone else.

“When you have eliminated the impossible, what ever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

— Sherlock Holmes, violinist, addict, consulting detective.

This may be the most famous quote in the collection, but it’s still logically impeccable.

“Inequality is the cause of all local movements.”

— Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), experimenter, procrastinator.

I like this one, especially as a social statement, but it’s true throughout nature.

“A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator the smaller the fraction.”

— Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), probably paid by the word.

Leo, Leo, Leo. It’s a great idea, but don’t you think it could be a bit pithier? Please? Think of the children.

The Universe

Maths is at its best — for me — when it’s about something. Others disagree. They’re wrong. Here are my favourite quotes about maths in the natural world.

“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”

— Douglas Adams (1952-2001), a cool frood who really knew where his towel was.

I think he meant ‘conjecture’, but it’s quite a plausible one.

“Knowing what is big and what is small is more important than being able to solve partial differential equations.”

— Stanislaw Ulam (1909-1984), pioneer of nuclear weaponry and the Monte Carlo technique.

I’ve had students insist that Mars is 5cm away because their calculator says so. They could probably solve PDEs in their heads.

“OK, one last time. These are small... but the ones out there are far away.”

— Father Ted Crilly, Eurovision entrant, master of projective geometry.

Ulam would have liked Father Ted.

“Logic doesn't apply to the real world.”

— Marvin Minsky (1927-), one of only two people smarter than Asimov.

True, that.

“Electrons and gerbils don't cheat.”

— Martin Gardner (1914-2010), metamathematical mathemagician.

This is why experiments are important.

"We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done"

— Alan Turing (1912-1954), Colossus.

Any time we think we’ve discovered just about everything there is to discover, something comes along to shake the world up again. It’s one of the most exciting things about being alive in the 21st century.

“Nature laughs at the difficulties of integration.”

— Pierre-Simon de Laplace (1749-1827), transformer, probabilist.

If you’ve ever tried to program a computer to model nature, you’ll know that it takes a huge amount of time and effort — and nature does it (almost literally) at light speed.

"The purpose of models is not to fit the data but to sharpen the questions.

— Samuel Karlin (1924-2007), no relation to George.

A direct consequence of Laplace’s quote.

“Experimental confirmation of a prediction is merely a measurement. An experiment disproving a prediction is a discovery.”

— Enrico Fermi (1901-1954), one of the many fathers of the atomic bomb.

This seems back-to-front (most of the time, we look for confirmation rather than contradiction), but it’s good to remember that you can never prove a hypothesis, only disprove it. See also, Huxley.

“Nature may reach the same result in many ways.”

— Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), genius, brat.

It was a choice between quoting Tesla or the first proper computing book I ever read, which said “there’s more than one way to do it”.

“Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so.”

— Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), Galileo Figaro magnifico-o-o. Also inventor of telescope, victim of Inquisition, possibly first smart-arse nobody liked.

An excellent first point for any project.

“Million to one shots come up nine times out of ten.”

— Terry Pratchett (1948-), worldmaker.

This is absurd, but it makes me think really quite hard every time I read it.

The Mathematician

We’re an odd bunch, and it’d be remiss not to reflect that.

“A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems.”

— Alfréd Rényi (1921-1970), man after my own heart.

We’re machines, that’s all.

"Oh, he seems like an okay person, except for being a little strange in some ways. All day he sits at his desk and scribbles, scribbles, scribbles. Then, at the end of the day, he takes the sheets of paper he's scribbled on, scrunches them all up, and throws them in the trash can."

— John von Neumann's housekeeper.

I fear this one is apocryphal, but it’s too good a description of mathematical work to be left out.

“We are usually convinced more easily by reasons we have found ourselves than by those which have occurred to others.”

— Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), theological gambler.

This is true outside of maths, too — or at least I’ve convinced myself of that.

“Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whenever you say something to them, they translate it into their own language, and at once it is something entirely different.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), like Franklin but better.

He says it like it’s a bad thing.

“I can testify that [Emmy Noether] is a great mathematician, but that she is a woman, I cannot swear.“

— Edmund Landau (1877-1938), inventor of the Big O.

It’s hard to imagine a more mathematician-like statement than this.

“Have you noticed that the astronomers and mathematicians are much the most cheerful people of the lot? I suppose that perpetually contemplating things on so vast a scale makes them feel either that it doesn't matter a hoot anyway, or that anything so large and elaborate must have some sense in it somewhere.”

— Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957), inventor of the Guinness Toucan, crime writer.

It must have some sense in it somewhere; I’ll keep looking.

Geek Pride

Odd we may be, but we’re also proud of what we do.

“I am, and always will be, a white socks, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer, born under the second law of thermodynamics, steeped in steam tables, in love with free-body diagrams, transformed by Laplace and propelled by compressible flow. ”

- Neil Armstrong (1930-2012), first man to walk on the f*cking moon.

It’s a source of great comfort to me that one of the bravest and luckiest human beings to have lived wore his geekiness as a badge of honour.

“With me everything turns into mathematics.”

— René Descartes (1596-1650), thinker, be-er.

I’m pulling out the big guns in this section (there’s Lovelace, Curie, Franklin and Plato still to come). It’s a bit of a scandal that Descartes is remembered for one line of philosophy when he was probably the most important mathematician of his time (Newton was 8 when Descartes died.)

“The more I study, the more insatiable do I feel my genius for it to be.”

— Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), first computer scientist.

Modest, that Lovelace lady.

“A good mathematical joke is better, and better mathematics, than a dozen mediocre papers.”

— J.E. Littlewood (1885-1977), miracle counter.

You could argue that Pratchett’s line makes a better case for Littlewood’s Law than Littlewood ever did.

“It is magic until you understand it, and it is mathematics thereafter.”

— Bharati Krishna (1884-1960), mathematical lord of Veda.

I read Vedic Maths. It’s still magic.

“It is impossible to be a mathematician without being a poet in soul.”

— Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850-1891), extraordinary professor.

Maths has an unfair image of being turgid and dreary, but truly great maths is as beautiful as truly great poetry. There’s a lot of doggerel out there, though.

“Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house.”

— Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988), buyer of lunch.

This is a bit mean-spirited for my liking, but it’d be a boring book if I only included quotes I agreed with whole-heartedly (see also, Barbie)

“I am one of those who think like Nobel, that humanity will draw more good than evil from new discoveries.”

— Marie Curie (1867-1934), only multi-science Nobel Laureate, butt of cheap jokes about French polish.

Is this overly naïve? A bit earnest? Perhaps. But Curie has more Nobel prizes than you and I combined, so maybe we should listen to her.

“What science can there be more noble, more excellent, more useful for men, more admirably high and demonstrative, than this of the mathematics?”

— Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), hero of America.

Although I said he was an inferior Goethe, if there’s someone qualified to draw comparisons between the utility of different subjects, it’s Franklin. He excelled at pretty much everything.

“I draw little pictures and try this thing and that thing. I'm interested in how ideas fit together. Actually I'm very geometric in my thinking. I'm not really interested in numbers.”

— Mary Ellen Rudin (1924-), breaker of topology.

I didn’t know quite which section this belonged in, but I like the idea that one of the most important mathematicians of the 20th century doesn’t much care for numbers.

“He who can properly define and divide is to be considered a god.”

— Plato (about 424-348 BCE[3]), Republican

I mean, I know some people find long division tricky, but… well, ok. Send your tributes to me by email.

“Statistical thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read or write.“

— H. G. Wells (1946-1866), inventor of time travel.

I reckon that day is upon us.

"Our whole life is solving puzzles."

— Ernő Rubik (1944-), cubist.

I don’t know about our whole life, but certainly the whole night before my 4th year group theory exam. I’m still better at the Rubik Cube than I am at group theory.

Laziness

The two deadly sins of mathematicians are pride and sloth. Time to deal with the second of those.

“The authorities said, best leave it… unsolved.”

— Nigel Tufnel, visionary, like fire or ice.

Knowing when to walk away from a problem and when to turn it up to 11 is one of the most important skills a mathematician can have.

“I cannot do it without compters.”

— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), whoreson senseless villain.

I’m not sure if Bill means ‘counters’ or ‘computers’, but in either case he should be doing it in his head.

“One of the endearing things about mathematicians is the extent to which they will go to avoid doing any real work.”

— Matthew Pordage, known only for one quote, and Wikipedia-entry-less.

Brilliantly, Pordage went to the extent of coming up with a single quote that would ensure his eternal fame, rather than bother doing any sums. Well played, Pordage. Well played.

Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.

— William of Ockham (about 1288-1347), barber of science.

In other words, figure out the simplest thing that could possibly work.

“In my experience most mathematicians are intellectually lazy and especially dislike reading experimental papers.“

— Francis Crick (1916-2004), actually said “d-na[4]!”

Look, Franky-boy, just because you discovered the building blocks of life doesn’t give you the right to cast aspersions on mathematicians, no matter how accurate they are.

“To the devil with those who published before us."

— Aelius Donatus (around 350), tutor the the saints.

Or, as Lehrer sang, “my name in Dnepropetrovsk is cursed/ When he finds out I publish first!”

“In one word he told me the secret of success in mathematics: plagiarise! (Only be sure always to call it please ‘research’).”

— Tom Lehrer (1928-), folk-singer, mathematician, discoverer of lost lyrical works of Lobachevsky.

I’m pretty sure he copied this.

"You know we all became mathematicians for the same reason: we were lazy.”

— Max Rosenlicht (1924-1999), layabout.

As I keep saying, the idea of maths is to make things easy. This quote makes perfect sense.

“You mean you're in the same racket I am, you just read books by the professors and rewrite them?”

— Isaac Asimov (1920-1992), speedy typist.

Asimov said this to Martin Gardner, and it’s exactly the kind of racket I want to be in! (Only be sure always to call it please ‘research’).

Perseverance

Yes, mathematicians are odd, proud and lazy. But we’re also stubborn.

“I’m taking life one day at a time. At least, today I am.”

— Will McKiver (1978-), sidekick, fruitcake[5].

Masterful logic.

“All great theorems were discovered after midnight.”

— Adrian Mathesis, super-secret mathematical genius.

Again, impeccable logic. Also, all great theorems were discovered before midnight.

“Sometimes I find [mathematical problems] difficult, but my old obstinacy remains, for if I do not succeed today, I attack them again on the morrow.”

— Mary Somerville (1780-1872), first so-called scientist.

A bit preachy, I think, but a good attitude.

“I attribute my success to one thing: I never gave or took any excuse.”

— Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), statistician.

Another good attitude.

“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.”

— Paul R Halmos (1916-2006), inventor of the tombstone.

I found myself nodding and pointing when I read this: that’s it! That’s what students find hard about proofs. They’re the first bit of maths where you actually have to create rather than regurgitate.

“There are two ways to do great mathematics. The first way is to be smarter than everybody else. The second way is to be stupider than everybody else -- but persistent.”

— Raoul Bott (1923-2005), great name.

I fit firmly in the second camp.

‘“Why,” said the Dodo, “the best way to explain it is to do it.”’

— Lewis Carroll, (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, 1832-1898), can credibly claim to have invented double-sided sticky tape.

This one cuts both ways.

“Keep going, faith will come later.”

— Jean-Baptiste le Rond D'Alembert (1717-1783), fundamental theorist, fallacious gambler.

Another one for the wall. This has a lot in common with von Neumann.

“It is not enough to be in the right place at the right time. You must also have an open mind at the right time.”

Paul Erdős (1913-1996), most prolific mathematician since Euler, archetypal mad professor.

Woody Allen said that 80% of success is showing up. This is the other 20%.

“Chance favors only the prepared mind.”

— Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), the reason we wash our hands.

Same kind of idea as Erdős, but a bit pithier.

Failure

The thing about perseverance is, you fail. A lot.

"If I have not seen as far as others, it is because there were giants standing on my shoulders.”

— Jeff Goll, about whom even less is known than Hal Abelson.

I’ve deliberately not quoted Newton, Euler or Gauss — the big three — in this collection, although this corruption of Sir Isaac’s false modesty is delightful. (It’s often attributed to computer scientist Hal Abelson, who borrowed it from Goll).

“I don’t like quantum physics and I’m sorry I ever had anything to do with it.”

— Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961), cat-murderer (or not).

I feel exactly the same, Erwin, but I didn’t invent the bloody thing.

“As long as algebra is taught in school, there will be prayer in school.”

— Cokie Roberts (1943-), talking head.

Some mots are just perfectly bon.

“If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.”

— Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937), splitter of atom.

Zing.

“Those who are clever, who have a Brain, never understand anything.”

— W. T. Pooh, bear of little brain.

Having worked in universities, I can attest to this.

“It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to get permission.”

— Grace Hopper, first debugger, pirate.

In maths, ‘shoot first and ask questions later’ is usually a good policy. Our weapons are only structures.

"It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It is that they can’t see the problem.

— G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), prince of paradox.

I suspect Chesterton also taught maths.

“The great tragedy of Science: the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.”

— T. H. Huxley (1825-1895), first agnostic.

We’ve all been there, Hux. There’ll be a better hypothesis along in a minute.

“Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful.”

— George E.P. Box (1919-), of Box-Cox transformations fame.

This should be recited in place of grace at any dinner meeting of mathematicians and physicists.

“...man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.”

— Winston Churchill (1874-1965), honorary American.

Good strategy. The truth is scary.

"Math class is tough."

— Barbie, perverse role-model.

Yes, Barbie, that’s what makes it fun.

“We all agree that your theory is crazy — but is it crazy enough?”

— Niels Bohr (1885-1962), good footballer.

If you’ve ever even glanced at quantum, you’ll understand this.

“Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all.“

— Charles Babbage (1791-1871), early noise pollution protestor.

Thinking alongside the Box and the Galileo, there’s a lot of sense in Babbage’s idea: more information is better.

“To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.”

— George Orwell (1903-1950), doubleplusgood duckspeaker.

Yup, pretty common in science.

“I have not failed — I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

— Thomas Edison (1847-1931), professional ripper-off of Tesla.

Or you could just make like Lehrer and copy Tesla.

“There’s always hope when you get a sharp contradiction.”

G. H. Hardy (1877-1847), mathematical apologist.

This one’s double-edged, too: if you get an obviously wrong answer, that’s a good sign, because it suggests you’ve made a big and easy-to-find mistake. The problem comes when you get muddy answers, which is always.

“Everyone knows what a curve is, until he has studied enough mathematics to become confused through the countless number of possible exceptions.”

— Felix Klein (1849-1925), four-dimensional bottle-maker.

According to some of my students, the curve is the embodiment of pure evil.

"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp posts - for support rather than illumination.”

— Attributed to Andrew Lang (1844-1912), St Andrean, winner of Movember.

Doesn’t everyone? (Hic.)

“In an examination, those who do not wish to know ask questions of those who cannot tell.”

— Sir Walter Raleigh (around 1554-1618), Blackadder-a-like, stupid get.

… Then move the goalposts to achieve political targets.

Careers

Lastly, no book of maths quotes would be complete without some sterling advice on how to make the most of your career in the subject.

“After all, with a degree in maths, and another in astrophysics, what else was there to do? It was either that or the dole queue again on Monday.”

— Trillian, one of the last two humans alive.

This isn’t just an excuse to squeeze a second Douglas Adams quote into the selection, although that’s a big part of it. It’s also a pretty accurate depiction of the job-market for academics at the moment.

“The race that does not value trained intelligence is doomed.”

— Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947), Russell’s boss.

This was my e-mail signature for a long while. Some parts of the world (yes, I’m looking at you, bits of America) seem to devote their time to destroying the science that’s brought them their genetically modified fast food and enormous TVs.

“First of all there are lower expectations. If one happens to discover something new, one's peers are pleasantly surprised and generous in their praise. This is good for the morale ...”

— Emma Lehmer (1906-2007), only 100-year-old quoted here.

Lehmer is talking here about her lack of a Ph.D. and how it made things easier for her in a sense. You don’t need degrees to be a good mathematician — see, for instance, Gardner and Asimov.

“It depends upon the individual.”

— Cecilia Krieger (1894-1974), Canada’s third doctor of maths.

This was Krieger’s response to a question aboout[6] what chance a woman had to be successful.

“I wouldn’t even think about playing music if I was born in these times… I’d probably turn to something like mathematics. That would interest me.”

— Bob Dylan (1941-), greatest songwriter of the 20th century, curmudgeon.

See, kids? It’s an exciting field.

“I wanted a life which would never be boring. That meant a life in which always new things would occur”

— Irmgard Flügge-Lotz (1903-1974), liver of an exciting life.

Am I doing a good job of selling maths yet? You can be lazy and excited all at once!

“If there is a moral to this tale of how I became a mathematician, it is that sources of inspiration and opportunities to change your life can come unexpectedly and should not be ignored; and that you should not neglect the dictates of your own career, taking some risks if necessary, since you never know what the future will bring.”

— Louise Schmir Hay (1935-1989) (French link), grabber of opportunities.

Well, I just flat-out disagree with that. If you replaced ‘career’ with ‘interests’, you might convince me.

“Maybe I became a mathematician because I was so crummy at housework.”

— Cathleen Morawetz (1923-), solver of the supersonic, imploder of spheres.

It’s my main reason, too. Nature abhors a vacuum cleaner.

“Usually mathematicians have to shoot somebody to get this much publicity.”

— Thomas R Nicely, scourge of Intel, hider of birthdate.

Nicely found a bug in a Pentium chip in 1994. He probably used structures rather than a gun.

“The goal of this thesis is to get its author a doctorate.”

— Adrien Douady (1935-2006), rabbit-hunter.

It worked.

Notes

1. I worked on NASA’s Living With A Star project, protecting the planet from being destroyed by solar flares. So far, so good.

2. it’s him or Erdös, I’d have thought.

3. I didn’t really care whether people used BC or BCE until the Daily Mail started complaining about BCE. So BCE it is.

4. A Milton Jones joke, shamelessly stolen.

5. His own description.

6. I don’t normally mock the Canadian accent, but I mistyped this and it amused me enough that I didn’t correct it.