Collection of my favorite quotes

Metamathematics

“It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not the possession of but the act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment.”― Carl Friedrich Gauss

“When you are collecting mushrooms, you only see the mushroom itself. But if you are a mycologist, you know that the real mushroom is in the earth. There’s an enormous thing down there, and you just see the fruit, the body that you eat. In mathematics, the upper part of the mushroom corresponds to theorems that you see. But you don’t see the things which are below, namely problems, conjectures, mistakes, ideas, and so on. You might have several apparently unrelated mushrooms and are unable to see what their connection is unless you know what is behind.” - Mathematical Events of the Twentieth Century, Vladimir I. Arnold.

“I have had my results for a long time: but I do not yet know how I am to arrive at them.”― Carl Friedrich Gauss

“There’s no sense in being precise when you don’t even know what you’re talking about.”-John Von Neumann

“Real mathematics must be justified as art if it can be justified at all.”― G.H. Hardy, A Mathematician’s Apology

“If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.”-John Von Neumann

Wit

“When Euler died, he simply said I am finished and collapsed, to which someone in the audience muttered darkly: Another conjecture of Euler is proved.” -Paul Erdos.

“Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.”― Hogfather, Terry Pratchett.

“Your Excellency, I have no need of this hypothesis.” ― Pierre Laplace when asked why there was no mention of God in his theory!

Wisdom

“Fourfoil, they call it.” Ogion had halted, the coppershod foot of his staff near the little weed, so Ged looked closely at the plant, and plucked a dry seedpod from it, and finally asked, since Ogion said nothing more, “What is its use, Master?” “None I know of.” Ged kept the seedpod a while as they went on, then tossed it away. “When you know the fourfoil in all its seasons root and leaf and flower, by sight and scent and seed, then you may learn its true name, knowing its being: which is more than its use. What, after all, is the use of you? or of myself? Is Gont Mountain useful, or the Open Sea?” Ogion went on a halfmile or so, and said at last, “To hear, one must be silent.” -The Wizard of EarthSea, Ursula Le Guin.

“Wisdom comes from experience. Experience is often a result of lack of wisdom.” ― Terry Pratchett

Fixing jokes

“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that” - George Carlin

• I believe he assumes stupidity is unimodal, otherwise the joke lands only if he says median person instead of average.