Some People Have Got A Mental Horizon

Wir Mussen Wissen. Wir Werden Wissen. We Must Know. We Will Know. Inscribed On His Tomb In Gilttingen.

Besides It Is An Error To Believe That Rigour Is The Enemy Of Simplicity. On The Contrary We Find It Confirmed By Numerous Examples That The Rigorous Method Is At The Same Time The Simpler And The More Easily Comprehended. The Very Effort For Rigor Forces Us To Find Out Simpler Methods Of Proof.

Before Beginning [to Try To Prove Fermat's Last Theorem] I Should Have To Put In Three Years Of Intensive Study, And I Haven't That Much Time To Squander On A Probable Failure.

However Unapproachable These Problems May Seem To Us And However Helpless We Stand Before Them, We Have, Nevertheless, The Firm Conviction That Their Solution Must Follow By A Finite Number Of Purely Logical Processes.

Who Of Us Would Not Be Glad To Lift The Veil Behind Which The Future Lies Hidden; To Cast A Glance At The Next Advances Of Our Science And At The Secrets Of Its Development During Future Centuries? What Particular Goals Will There Be Toward Which The Leading Mathematical Spirits Of Coming Generations Will Strive? What New Methods And New Facts In The Wide And Rich Field Of Mathematical Thought Will The New Centuries Disclose?