One of the reasons we don't do as well as we should is that we are all over-taught.

I used to say: "Everything is Representation Theory". Now I say: "Nothing is Representation Theory".

My seminar is for highschool students, decent undergraduates, bright graduates, and outstanding professors.

People (or students) do not have shortcomings, only uniquenesses. The goal of a good teacher is to turn these uniquenesses into advantages.

The older I get, the more I believe that at the bottom of most deep mathematical problems there is a combinatorial problem.

If you understand something, you understand that it is obvious.

... The approach of von Neumann and Connes to the use of non-commutative algebra in physics is naive, the situation is much more complicated.

Do I need permission to breathe, Sir?

The man with the ball is responsible for what happens to the ball.

Some people feel like they don't deserve love so they walk quietly into the empty spaces.

Well, I come down in the morning and I take up a pencil and I try to THINK.

There's one advantage in having been around as long as I have. Everybody in the Senate knows me, and - I'm going to say something presumptuous, to repeat myself - I think most respect me.

When you understand how to love one thing, then you also understand how to love everything.

Factions among yourselves; preferring such To offices and honors, as ne'er read The elements of saving policy; But deeply skilled in all the principles That usher to destruction.

Drink very good tea out of a thin Wocester cup of colour between apricot and pink.

I've always sort of time-locked and mind-blocked myself in my 30s, and that's always the age I feel.

Making a big life change is pretty scary. But know what's even scarier? Regret.