Heirs Quote by Edsger Dijkstra

I like to think of mathematicians as forming a nation of our own without distinctions of geographical origin, race, creed, sex, age or even…

— Julia Robinson

Mathematicians boast of their exacting achievements, but in reality they are absorbed in mental acrobatics and contribute nothing to society.

— Ogyu Sorai

“In fact, most of these comrades who I gauged to be more brilliant than I have gone on to become distinguished mathematicians. Still, from…

— Alexander Grothendieck

In their field they [mathematicians] do what we ought to be doing in ours. Therein lies the significant lesson ... of their existence. They…

— Robert Musil

Most were beginning to feel they had learned enough to last for the rest of their lives. They remained mathematicians, but largely went their…

— Benoit Mandelbrot

Mathematics was born and nurtured in a cultural environment. Without the perspective which the cultural background affords, a proper appreciation of the content and…

— Raymond Louis Wilder

A typical mathematician does not actively try to be useful. Individual mathematicians are motivated primarily by a subtle mixture of ambition and intellectual curiosity,…

— Timothy Gowers

Each generation has its few great mathematicians, and mathematics would not even notice the absence of the others. They are useful as teachers, and…

— Alfred Adler

“Mathematicians think in symbols, physicists in objects, philosophers in concepts, geometers in images, jurists in constructs, logicians in operators, writers in impressions, and idiots…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Mathematicians are stiff abstract guys. They'll tell you they don't need the physical world. But then when I show them my bubbles they're like…

— Tom Noddy

When I told my son that I had to give a talk about my work to non-mathematicians, he warned me that regular people don't…

— Richard A. Falk

How happy the lot of the mathematician. He is judged solely by his peers, and the standard is so high that no colleague or…

— W. H. Auden