The Infinite Is Only A Manner Of

Life Stands Before Me Like An Eternal Spring With New And Brilliant Clothes.

That This Subject [of Imaginary Magnitudes] Has Hitherto Been Considered From The Wrong Point Of View And Surrounded By A Mysterious Obscurity, Is To Be Attributed Largely To An Ill-adapted Notation. If, For Example, +1, -1, And The Square Root Of -1 Had Been Called Direct, Inverse And Lateral Units, Instead Of Positive, Negative And Imaginary (or Even Impossible), Such An Obscurity Would Have Been Out Of The Question.

You Know That I Write Slowly. This Is Chiefly Because I Am Never Satisfied Until I Have Said As Much As Possible In A Few Words, And Writing Briefly Takes Far More Time Than Writing At Length.

A Great Part Of Its Theories Derives An Additional Charm From The Peculiarity That Important Propositions, With The Impress Of Simplicity On Them, Are Often Easily Discovered By Induction, And Yet Are Of So Profound A Character That We Cannot Find The Demonstrations Till After Many Vain Attempts; And Even Then, When We Do Succeed, It Is Often By Some Tedious And Artificial Process, While The Simple Methods May Long Remain Concealed.

It Is Always Noteworthy That All Those Who Seriously Study This Science [the Theory Of Numbers] Conceive A Sort Of Passion For It.