Quotes from David Hilbert

We must know. We will know.

The infinite! No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man.

Wir müssen wissen, wir werden wissen.

Good, he did not have enough imagination to become a mathematician. [Upon hearing that one of his students had dropped out to study poetry]

Sometimes it happens that a man's circle of horizon becomes smaller and smaller, and as the radius approaches zero it concentrates on one point. And then that becomes his point of view.

Mathematics knows no races or geographical boundaries; for mathematics, the cultural world is one country.

No one shall expel us from the paradise which Cantor has created for us. { Expressing the importance of Georg Cantor 's set theory in the development of mathematics .}

If I were to awaken after having slept for a thousand years, my first question would be: has the Riemann Hypothesis been proven?

he who seeks for methods without having a definite problem in mind seeks for the most part in vain.

The art of doing mathematics consists in finding that special case which contains all the germs of generality.

No one shall expel us from the paradise that Cantor has created for us.

We hear within us the perpetual call: There is the problem. Seek its solution.

But above all I wish to designate the following as the most important among the numerous questions which can be asked with regard to the axioms: To prove that they are not contradictory, that is, that a definite number of logical steps based upon them can never lead to contradictory results.

That Schmidt, he didn't have enough imagination for mathematics. Now he has become a poet. For that he had just enough.

A mathematical theory is not to be considered complete until you have made it so clear that you can explain it to the first man whom you meet on the street.

Wir dürfen nicht denen glauben, die heute mit philosophischer Miene und über-legenem Tone den Kulturuntergang prophezeien und sich in dem Ignorabimus gefallen. Füruns gibt es kein Ignorabimus, und meiner Meinung nach auch für die Naturwissenschaftüberhaupt nicht. Statt des törichten Ignorabimus heisse im Gegenteil unsere Lösung: Wir müssen wissen. Wir werden wissen.

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.

Mathematics is a game played according to certain simple rules with meaningless marks on paper.