"I was interviewed in the Israeli Radio for five minutes and I said that more than 2000 years ago, Euclid proved that there are infinitely many primes. Immediately the host interrupted me and asked: 'Are there still infinitely many primes?'"
- Noga Alon

"Music is part of Number Theory. Nowadays when a number theorist applies for a grant, he says that it is good for security, but in those days, way before America, he would say that it's good for music. I will not comment whether we have progressed..."
- H. W. Lenstra Jr.

"Now, people ask me all the time how we got four surplus budgets in a row. What new ideas did we bring to Washington? I always give a one-word answer: Arithmetic." (Sustained cheers, applause.)
- Bill Clinton

"Mathematics is like checkers in being suitable for the young, not too difficult, amusing, and without peril to the state."
- attributed to Plato

"I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks."
- Daniel Boone, on modular forms

"The mysteries of mathematics are degraded if they are made into an object of affirmation and negation, when in reality they should be an object of contemplation."
- adapted from Simone Weil

"In searching out the truth be ready for the unexpected, for it is difficult to find and puzzling when you find it."
- Heraclitus