Combinatorics is an honest subject. No adèles, no sigma-algebras. You count balls in a box, and you either have the right number or you haven't. You get the feeling that the result you have discovered is forever, because it's concrete.… — Gian-Carlo Rota Copy Share Image
Why is it that Serge Lange's Linear Algebra, published by no less a Verlag than Springer, ostentatiously displays the sale of a few thousand copies over a period of fifteen years, while the same title by Seymour Lipschutz in the… — Gian-Carlo Rota Copy Share Image
Every lecture should state one main point and repeat it over and over, like a theme with variations. An audience is like a herd… — Gian-Carlo Rota Copy Share
God created infinity, and man, unable to understand infinity, had to invent finite sets. — Gian-Carlo Rota Copy Share
Philosophers and psychiatrists should explain why it is that we mathematicians are in the habit of systematically erasing our footsteps. Scientists have always looked… — Gian-Carlo Rota Copy Share
The lack of real contact between mathematics and biology is either a tragedy, a scandal or a challenge, it is hard to decide which. — Gian-Carlo Rota Copy Share
The apex of mathematical achievement occurs when two or more fields which were thought to be entirely unrelated turn out to be closely intertwined.… — Gian-Carlo Rota Copy Share
[In mathematics] There are two kinds of mistakes. There are fatal mistakes that destroy a theory, but there are also contingent ones, which are… — Gian-Carlo Rota Copy Share
Every field has its taboos. In algebraic geometry the taboos are (1) writing a draft that can be followed by anyone but two or… — Gian-Carlo Rota Copy Share
Running overtime is the one unforgivable error a lecturer can make. After fifty minutes (one microcentury as von Neumann used to say) everybody's attention… — Gian-Carlo Rota Copy Share
Mathematics is the study of analogies between analogies. All science is. Scientists want to show that things that don't look alike are really the… — Gian-Carlo Rota Copy Share
If we have no idea why a statement is true, we can still prove it by induction. — Gian-Carlo Rota Copy Share
Mathematicians also make terrible salesmen. Physicists can discover the same thing as a mathematician and say 'We've discovered a great new law of nature.… — Gian-Carlo Rota Copy Share
Stan Ulam was lazy, ... He talked too much ... He was self-centered ... . He had an overpowering personality. — Gian-Carlo Rota Copy Share
Combinatorics is an honest subject. No adèles, no sigma-algebras. You count balls in a box, and you either have the right number or you… — Gian-Carlo Rota Copy Share
