The lack of real contact between mathematics and biology is either a tragedy, a scandal or a challenge, it is hard to decide which.

- Gian-Carlo Rota

Mathematics is the study of analogies between analogies. All science is. Scientists want to show that things that don't look alike are really the sam…

- Gian-Carlo Rota

Mathematicians also make terrible salesmen. Physicists can discover the same thing as a mathematician and say 'We've discovered a great new law of na…

- Gian-Carlo Rota

Why is it that Serge Lange's Linear Algebra, published by no less a Verlag than Springer, ostentatiously displays the sale of a few thousand copies o…

- Gian-Carlo Rota

Every lecture should state one main point and repeat it over and over, like a theme with variations. An audience is like a herd of cows, moving slowl…

- Gian-Carlo Rota

Every field has its taboos. In algebraic geometry the taboos are (1) writing a draft that can be followed by anyone but two or three of one's closest…

- Gian-Carlo Rota

Nature imitates mathematics.

- Gian-Carlo Rota

Richard Feynman was fond of giving the following advice on how to be a genius. You have to keep a dozen of your favorite problems constantly present …

- Gian-Carlo Rota

Combinatorics is an honest subject. No adèles, no sigma-algebras. You count balls in a box, and you either have the right number or you haven't. You …

- Gian-Carlo Rota