66 Quotes by David Hilbert

Before beginning I should put in three years of intensive study, and I haven't that much time to squander on a probable failure.

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.

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

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.

One must be able to say at all times – instead of points, straight lines, and planes – tables, chairs, and beer mugs.

One can measure the importance of a scientific work by the number of earlier publications rendered superfluous by it.

I have tried to avoid long numerical computations, thereby following Riemann’s postulate that proofs should be given through ideas and not voluminous computations.

I didn’t work especially hard at mathematics at school, because I knew that’s what I’d be doing later.

The further a mathematical theory is developed, the more harmoniously and uniformly does its construction proceed, and unsuspected relations are disclosed between hitherto separated branches of the science.