The solution of every problem is another problem
Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them they translate into their own language and forthwith it is something entirely different.
Viewed from the summit of reason, all life looks like a malignant disease and the world like a madhouse.
Mathematics has the completely false reputation of yielding infallible conclusions. Its infallibility is nothing but identity. Two times two is not four, but it is just two times two, and that is what we call four for short. But four is nothing new at all. And thus it goes on and on in its conclusions, except that in the higher formulas the identity fades out of sight.
It has been said that figures rule the world. Maybe. But I am sure that figures show us whether it is being ruled well or badly.
