Mathematics is the most beautiful and most powerful creation of the human spirit.

“Measure what can be measured. Make measurable what cannot be measured.” ~Galileo

“Without mathematics, there’s nothing you can do. Everything around you is mathematics. Everything
around you is numbers.” ~Shakuntala Devi

Mathematics is not only real, but it is the only reality. — Martin Gardner

Mathematics, however, is, as it were, its own explanation; this, although it may seem hard to accept, is
nevertheless true, for the recognition that a fact is so is the cause upon which we base the proof. —
Girolamo Cardano

49. Mathematics makes a nice distinction between the usually synonymous terms “elementary” and
“simple”, with “elementary” taken to mean that not very much mathematical knowledge is needed to
read the work and “simple” to mean that not very much mathematical ability is needed to understand it.
– Julian Havel

50. Mathematics is a hard thing to love. It has the unfortunate habit, like a rude dog, of turning its most
unfavourable side towards you when you first make contact with it. — David Whiteland

Even though everyone learns mathematics at school, it is difficult to define exactly what mathematics is.
Clearly numbers, shapes and equations form part of it, but only a small part compared to the vast space
of mathematical concepts and ideas. The best way to understand what mathematics is and what
mathematicians work on – is to do mathematics.

One idea that appears everywhere in mathematics is abstraction. Instead of thinking about particular
numbers, shapes, equations or any other objects, mathematicians tend to think about their underlying
structures and patterns. This means that the results, called Theorems, are more general and provide
deeper insight.

Another fundamental idea in mathematics is Proof. Mathematicians can’t just say that an idea is true, or
test it in a few cases. They need a rigorous and watertight argument to deduce that it is always true.
Maybe this makes mathematics more difficult than other sciences, but it also means that
mathematicians can obtain absolute and definitive knowledge – which is impossible in any other
discipline.
Despite being so abstract and theoretical, mathematics has countless applications in every possible
aspect of life. Without mathematics our civilisation would be little more advanced than the ancient
Egyptians: we wouldn’t have governments funded by a tax system, no phones, no television, no
computers, no internet and no satellite navigation. The cultural value and the monetary economic value
of mathematics are too large to measure.

Mathematics is also the language of the universe, from the electrochemical signals in our brain to the
equations of General Relativity which govern the motion of stars and galaxies everywhere in the
universe. It is one of humanity’s most noble endeavours to understand the universe we live in, and that
would not be possible without mathematics.