Andre Weil

“Nothing is more fruitful than the cross-fertilization of mathematical theories.”

“God exists since mathematics is consistent, and the Devil exists since we cannot prove it.”

“Rigor is to the mathematician what morality is to man.”

“Intuition is what makes the mathematician a poet.”

“When a branch of mathematics ceases to interest any but the specialists, it is very near its death, or at any rate its fossilization.”

“What is crucial is to be in a state of grace. For this, it is necessary to apply yourself to a problem which you love, and which is at the limit of your understanding.”

“Every mathematician worthy of the name has experienced... the state of lucid exaltation in which one thought succeeds another as if miraculously.”

“The great problems are those which are simple in their statement, but whose solutions require a long and difficult analysis.”