Pure Math Quotes

“I failed him, failed him miserably in what is most important: I was unable to communicate the sanctity, the holiness of our discipline. I did not teach him what the “pure” in “pure mathematics” really means. It is not what people think. It is not knowledge for its own sake. It is not a search for patterns, nor is it a series of abstract, intellectual games completely unconnected from the real world and its many troubles. It is something quite other. Mathematics is the closest we can come to the mind of Hashem. And so, it should be practiced with reverence, because it has true power, a power that can be easily used for evil, as it is born from a faculty that only we possess, and that the Lord, blessed be He, gave us instead of teeth, claws, or talons, but that is equally dangerous and lethal.”
― Benjamín Labatut, The MANIAC