"I really believed that I was on the right track, but that did not mean that I would necessarily reach my goal."

Andrew Wiles Mathematics See all quotes by Andrew Wiles →

React to this quote

More by Andrew Wiles

“But what has made this problem special for amateurs is that there's a tiny possibility that there does exist an elegant 17th-century proof.”

“But perhaps that's always the way with math problems, and we just have to find new ones to capture our attention.”

“Fermat couldn't possibly have had this proof.”

“I know it's a rare privilege, but if one can really tackle something in adult life that means that much to you, then it's more rewarding than anything I can imagine.”

“Always try the problem that matters most to you.”

“However impenetrable it seems, if you don't try it, then you can never do it.”

Resonant Thoughts

"For me, the edges of a picture are the most important areas. I like to think of the image as a small segment of a much larger scene, so that you feel that, if you could see behind the edges of the "sn…"

— Alan Lee (illustrator)

Art1947

#friendship

"For in virtually any other serious sickness, a patient who felt similar devastation would be lying flat in bed, possibly sedated and hooked up to the tubes and wires of life-support systems, but at th…"

— William Styron

Literature1925–2006

#friendship

"The architects of the Constitution had the intention of making a republican and federal government which would endure with stability, insure justice, promote the general welfare and be proof against u…"

— Dorothy Thompson

Journalism1893–1961

#justice

"“The materials in these still standard books never betray the author’s original purpose in amassing them: to demonstrate that Christianity is rationally superior to Hinduism."

— John Muir (indologist)

Philosophy1838–1914

#friendship