Many people who have
never had occasion
to learn what
mathematics is
confuse it with
arithmetic and
consider it a dry
and arid science.
In actual fact it is
the science which
demands the utmost
imagination. One of
the foremost
mathematicians of
our century says
very justly that it
is impossible to be
a mathematician
without also being a
poet in spirit. . .
. It seems to me
that the poet must
see what others do
not see, must see
more deeply than
other people. And
the mathematician
must do the same.