David Hilbert

"If we do not succeed in solving a mathematical problem, the reason frequently consists in our failure to recognize the more general standpoint from which the problem before us appears only as a single…"

"The art of doing mathematics consists in finding that special case which contains all the germs of generality."

"In mathematics, as in any scientific research, we find two tendencies... he tendency toward abstraction seeks to crystallize the logical relations inherent in the maze of material in a systematic and …"

"One can measure the importance of a scientific work by the number of earlier publications rendered superfluous by it."

"To new concepts correspond, necessarily, new signs. These we choose in such a way that they remind us of the phenomena which were the occasion for the formation of the new concepts."

"If I were to awaken after having slept for a thousand years, my first question would be: Has the Riemann hypothesis been proven?"

"An old French mathematician said: A mathematical theory is not to be considered complete until you have made it so clear that you can explain it to the first man whom you meet on the street. This clea…"

"If one were to bring ten of the wisest men in the world together and ask them what was the most stupid thing in existence, they would not be able to discover anything so stupid as astrology."