Clear Quote by Ernst Mach

A formal manipulator in mathematics often experiences the discomforting feeling that his pencil surpasses him in intelligence.

— Anonymous

In my experience most mathematicians are intellectually lazy and especially dislike reading experimental papers. He seemed to have very strong biological intuitions but unfortunately…

— Francis Crick

The mathematician requires tact and good taste at every step of his work, and he has to learn to trust to his own instinct…

— James Whitbread Lee Glaisher

“Mathematicians need only peace of mind and occasionally, paper and pencil.”

— Paul Hoffman

“It was difficult enough being a mathematician, this being the frightening subject of which even educated people knew nothing, not even what it was,…

— Andrew Hodges

The life of a mathematician is dominated by an insatiable curiosity, a desire bordering on passion to solve the problems he is studying.

— Jean Dieudonne

The imagination of the genius vastly surpasses his intellect; the intellect of the academic vastly surpasses his imagination

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Good, he did not have enough imagination to become a mathematician. [Upon hearing that one of his students had dropped out to study poetry] ”

— David Hilbert

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

It is a pleasant surprise to him (the pure mathematician) and an added problem if he finds that the arts can use his calculations,…

— George Santayana

“Knowing mathematics is like wearing a pair of X-ray specs that reveal hidden structures underneath the messy and chaotic surface of the world.”

— Jordan Ellenberg

“What use is it to him now that he was such a good mathematician at school?”

— Erich Maria Remarque