“Somewhere out there is a theory that would explain my empirical observations, and this theory has yet to be discovered. Mathematics thrives on such mysteries.”

“Science requires both observation and comprehension. Without observation there are no facts to be comprehended; without comprehension science is mere documentation. The basis for comprehension is theory, and the language of theoretical science is mathematics. Theory is constructed on a foundation of hypothesis; the fewer the hypotheses needed to explain existing observations and predict new phenomena, the more ‘elegant’ the theory”

“You must forget all your theories, all your ideas before the subject. What part of these is really your own will be expressed in your expression of the emotion awakened in you by the subject.”

“The mystery of one man is too immense and too profound to be explained by another man.”

“I'm standing in the lake, forming a whirlpool with my arms, letting the force of atonement pull me into its center until I cannot any longer hang onto my observations or any sense of myself, like dust and hydrogen clouds getting all excited white creating new stars to light the backyard. How poignantly emptiness cries out to be filled.”

“The mathematician does not study pure mathematics because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it and he delights in it because it is beautiful.”

“Study is the child of silence and mystery.”