Favourite Quotations:

  • "This paper, whose intent is stated in its title, gives wrong solutions to trivial problems. The basic error, however, is not new."
    Clifford Truesell.

  • "Lo aleicha hammelachah ligmor, velo attah ven chorin libbatel mimmennah."
    (It is not up to you to finish the work, but you are not free to exempt yourself from it.)
    Pirkei Avot, 2:16.

  • "Cuiusvis hominis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in errore perseverare."
    (Any man is liable to a mistake; but no one but a downright fool will persist in error.)
    M.T. Cicero

  • Algebra is the offer made by the devil to the mathematician. The devil says: "I will give you this powerful machine, and it will answer any question you like. All you need to do is give me your soul: give up geometry and you will have this marvellous machine." The danger to our soul is there, because when you pass over into algebraic calculation, essentially you stop thinking: you stop thinking geometrically, you stop thinking about the meaning.
    Michael Atiyah.

  • The utility of the absolute differential calculus of Ricci and Levi-Civita must be tempered by an avoidance of excessively formal calculations, where the debauch of indices disguises an often very simple geometric reality. It is this reality that I have sought to reveal.
    Elie Cartan.

  • The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false.
    Paul Johnson.

  • Priscus Helvidius also saw this, and acted conformably. For when Vespasian sent and commanded him not to go into the senate, he replied, "It is in your power not to allow me to be a member of the senate, but so long as I am, I must go in." "Well, go in then," says the emperor, "but say nothing." "Do not ask my opinion, and I will be silent." "But I must ask your opinion." "And I must say what I think right." "But if you do, I shall put you to death." "When then did I tell you that I am immortal? You will do your part, and I will do mine: it is your part to kill; it is mine to die, but not in fear: yours to banish me; mine to depart without sorrow."
    Epictetus (50-135 AD)/ Priscus Helvidius

  • If our people feel that they are part of a great nation and they are prepared to will the means to keep it great, then a great nation we shall be, and shall remain. So, what can stop us from achieving this? What then stands in our way? The prospect of another winter of discontent? I suppose it might.
    But I prefer to believe that certain lessons have been learned from experience, that we are coming, slowly, painfully, to an autumn of understanding. And I hope that it will be followed by a winter of common sense. If it is not, we shall not be diverted from our course.
    To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the 'U-turn', I have only one thing to say: 'You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning!' I say that not only to you but to our friends overseas and also to those who are not our friends.
    Margaret H. Thatcher/ Ronald Millar (1980)

  1. M. Atiyah, "Mathematics in the 20th Century", 2002.
  2. E. Cartan, "Geometry of Riemannian Spaces", 1928.
  3. M.T. Cicero, Oarationes, "Philippicae", 12, II.
  4. Paul Johnson, The Quotable Paul Johnson: A Topical Compilation of His Wit, Wisdom and Satire, edited by George J. Marlin, et al (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994), p. 138.
  5. C. Truesell, MR0039515 (12,561a).