Hilbert, David

"To question is the beginning of wisdom; to answer is the beginning of mathematics."

"The infinite reminds us that our understanding, however vast, is always finite."

"One cannot force understanding; one can only create the conditions for it to emerge."

"Every mathematical discovery is a surprise, even when it was inevitable all along."

"The elegance of mathematics lies in its ability to say much with little."

"To be a mathematician is to be a witness to the underlying harmony of existence."

"Mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things."

"One cannot escape the feeling that these mathematical formulas have an independent existence and an intelligence of their own."

"If I were to awaken after having slept for a thousand years, my first question would be: has the Riemann hypothesis been proved?"

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

"Physics is becoming too important to be left to physicists."

"We must know, we will know."

"Every boy in the streets of Göttingen could understand the basic theory of relativity better than three professors."

"What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us."

"Art and science are not in opposition but in accord."

"The true mathematician is not rooted in his time and place, but carries within him a creative vision."

"Mathematical truths are discovered, not invented."

"I have had my results for a long time: but I do not yet know how I am to arrive at them."

"One cannot escape the feeling that mathematical truths are somehow eternal and independent of human thought."

"The problem of knowledge is not one for the world of sense but one for the mind."

"Axioms are not truths, but the starting points from which all other truths must be derived."

"We cannot think of any object, nor can we think any single thought, that would not depend upon the axioms of logic."

"If you want to understand geometry, you must first understand the language in which it is written."

"The mind can be expanded just like the universe itself."

"A proof should be like a clear window pane; light should pass through without distortion."

"The beauty of a mathematical proof lies in its inevitability."

"Science is organized knowledge that has been verified by experience."

"The question of the applicability of mathematics to natural phenomena remains eternally fascinating."

"Every scientific principle must be able to be expressed in the language of mathematics."

"Time is the canvas upon which the eternal plays."