Charles Hermite

“I turn with terror and horror from this lamentable plague of continuous functions with no derivatives.”

“I shall risk nothing on an attempt to prove the transcendence of π. If others undertake this enterprise, no one will be happier than I in their success. But believe me, it will not fail to cost them some effort.”

“There exists, if I am not mistaken, an entire world which is the totality of mathematical truths, to which we have access only with our mind, just as a world of physical reality exists... both of divine creation.”

“We are servants rather than masters in mathematics.”

“He is the master of us all.”