David Hilbert Math Quotations

Mathematics is a game played according to certain simple rules with meaningless marks on paper.

Mathematics knows no races or geographic boundaries; for mathematics, the cultural world is one country.

How thoroughly it is ingrained in mathematical science that every real advance goes hand in hand with the invention of sharper tools and simpler methods which, at the same time, assist in understanding earlier theories and in casting aside some more complicated developments.

The infinite! No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man.

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

Besides it is an error to believe that rigour is the enemy of simplicity. On the contrary we find it confirmed by numerous examples that the rigorous method is at the same time the simpler and the more easily comprehended. The very effort for rigor forces us to find out simpler methods of proof.

The arithmetical symbols are written diagrams and the geometrical figures are graphic formulas.

Before beginning [to try to prove Fermat's Last Theorem] I should have to put in three years of intensive study, and I haven't that much time to squander on a probable failure.