If the NSF had never existed, if the government had never funded American mathematics, we would have half as many mathematicians as we now have, and I don't see anything wrong with that.

The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics.

The author discusses valueless measures in pointless spaces.

The best way to learn is to do; the worst way to teach is to talk.

The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics. That tenet is the foundation of the do-it-yourself, Socratic, or Texas method.

A smooth lecture... may be pleasant; a good teacher challenges, asks, irritates and maintains high standards - all that is generally not pleasant.

A good stack of examples, as large as possible, is indispensable for a thorough understanding of any concept,and when I want to learn something new, I make it my first job to build one.

The beginner should not be discouraged if he finds he does not have the prerequisites for reading the prerequisites.

It is the duty of all teachers, and of teachers of mathematics in particular, to expose their students to problems much more than to facts.

Applied mathematics will always need pure mathematics just as anteaters will always need ants.

Mathematics is not a deductive science - that's a cliché... What you do is trial and error, experimentation, guesswork.

Funny always makes the bad things go away.

That extremes beget extremes is an apothegm built on the most profound observation of the human mind.

Knowing the 'right answers' does not mean we believe them. To believe them means to act as though they're true.

I was very close to playing at an Ivy League School. The Division I schools, when a coach would come visit all he would talk about was my size.

Idleness is the parent of psychology.

On Twitter, people like me regularly get called "sore losers" by Trumpeters. It just makes me roll my eyes. This is not about winning and losing. We all lost, even them, they just don't know it yet.

Nothing in a language is less translatable than its modes of understatement.

Nothing is yours permanently so you better enjoy it while it's happening.

I covered my face because they had taken my wisdom teeth out.

It's the little touches that make a future solid enough to destroy.