Quotes from Simon Singh

Archimedes will be remembered when Aeschylus is forgotten, because languages die and mathematical ideas do not. 'Immortality' may be a silly word, but probably a mathematician has the best chance of whatever it may mean. G.H. Hardy 23

The first known European book to describe the use of cryptography was written in the thirteenth century by the English Franciscan monk and polymath Roger Bacon. Epistle on the Secret Works of Art and the Nullity of Magic included seven methods for keeping messages secret, and cautioned: "A man is crazy who writes a secret in any other way than one which will conceal it from the vulgar.

The Last Theorem is at the heart of an intriguing saga of courage, skulduggery, cunning, and tragedy, involving all the greatest heroes of mathematics.

The infinite! 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.

The mathematician's patterns, like the painter's or the poet's, must be beautiful; the ideas, like the colours or the words, must fit together in a harmonious way. Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics. G.H. Hardy

Enigma was considered invulnerable, until the Poles revealed its weaknesses.

This apparently innocuous observation would lead to the first great breakthrough in cryptanalysis.

Libel law was developed to protect the reputations of individuals, not corporations.

Scientists aren't necessarily good communicators, because they aren't trained to be good communicators.

When I was finishing my PhD, I could just see people who were a bit quicker and brighter and smarter than me and I thought, 'well they are the people who are going to make the great discoveries.'

Part of the problem is that if anybody has a gut reaction about an issue, they can go online and have it backed up. That said, they can also find support for their ideas in the mainstream media - because when the mainstream media gives a so-called balanced view, it's often misleading.

In my case, I estimate that the members of the British Chiropractic Association have an annual turnover of £100m, and the BCA decided to sue me personally. I was very close to backing down and apologising for an article that was fair and accurate.

Nobody wants to get rid of the libel laws, but we want them to be fairer. If we drove down the costs you might end up with more people suing. The only people who can afford it now are the rich and the giant corporations.

Most of all, a good maths education encourages students to embrace difficult problems, not shy away from them. In my opinion, the problem is that most UK secondary schools don't stretch good mathematicians and therefore fail to turn them into excellent mathematicians.

When I attended a forum on libel reform at the British Academy in 2011, 20 figures ranging from law professors to leading libel law firm, Carter Ruck, from MPs to free speech groups, discussed the issue of corporations. There was unanimous agreement that there needed to be restrictions on the right of corporations to sue in libel.

I don't want to write books that are intellectually staggering if nobody's going to read them.

People back down because the libel system is so utterly hostile to journalists, bloggers, scientists. The smart thing is not to fight.

One scientist will interpret data one way, another in another way. One scientist may feel that an experiment is valid, another feels it's invalid. That's why scientists have discussions and put forward their opinions in conferences and papers.

Topologists are not concerned with angles and lengths, which are clearly altered by stretching the rubber sheet, but they do care about more fundamental properties.

The only consolation is that homeopathy can only be practised on animals by a fully trained vet or under the supervision of one, because it is forbidden for the average high street homeopath to treat animals on their own.

The truth is that many of the writers of 'The Simpsons' are deeply in love with numbers, and their ultimate desire is to drip-feed morsels of mathematics into the subconscious minds of viewers.