Joseph Louis Lagrange

"I cannot say whether I will still be doing geometry ten years from now. It also seems to me that the mine has maybe already become too deep and unless one finds new veins it might have to be abandoned…"

"It took them only an instant to cut off that head, but France may not produce another like it in a century."

"Newton was the greatest genius that ever existed, and the most fortunate, for we cannot find more than once a system of the world to establish."

"An ancient writer said that arithmetic and geometry are the wings of mathematics; I believe one can say without speaking metaphorically that these two sciences are the foundation and essence of all th…"

"We have already various treatises on Mechanics, but the plan of this one is entirely new. I intend to reduce the theory of this Science, and the art of solving problems relating to it, to general form…"

"As long as algebra and geometry proceeded along separate paths, their advance was slow and their applications limited. But when these sciences joined company, they drew from each other fresh vitality …"