Before Beginning [to Try To Prove Fermat's

In Mathematics ... We Find Two Tendencies Present. On The One Hand, The Tendency Towards Abstraction Seeks To Crystallise The Logical Relations Inherent In The Maze Of Materials ... Being Studied, And To Correlate The Material In A Systematic And Orderly Manner. On The Other Hand, The Tendency Towards Intuitive Understanding Fosters A More Immediate Grasp Of The Objects One Studies, A Live Rapport With Them, So To Speak, Which Stresses The Concrete Meaning Of Their Relations.

No Other Question Has Ever Moved So Profoundly The Spirit Of Man; No Other Idea Has So Fruitfully Stimulated His Intellect; Yet No Other Concept Stands In Greater Need Of Clarification Than That Of The Infinite.

Some People Have Got A Mental Horizon Of Radius Zero And Call It Their Point Of View.

Geometry, Like Arithmetic, Requires For Its Logical Development Only A Small Number Of Simple, Fundamental Principles. These Fundamental Principles Are Called The Axioms Of Geometry.

We Ought Not To Believe Those Who Today, Adopting A Philosophical Air And With A Tone Of Superiority, Prophesy The Decline Of Culter And Are Content With The Unknowable In A Self-satisfied Way. For Us There Is No Unknowable, And In My Opinion There Is Also Non Whatsoever For The Natural Sciences. In Place Of This Foolish Unknowable, Let Our Watchword On The Contrary Be: We Must Know - We Shall Know.