The older I get, the more I believe that at the bottom of most deep mathematical problems there is a combinatorial problem.

- Israel Gelfand

I used to say: "Everything is Representation Theory". Now I say: "Nothing is Representation Theory".

- Israel Gelfand

Eugene Wigner wrote a famous essay on the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in natural sciences. He meant physics, of course. There is only o…

- Israel Gelfand

One of the reasons we don't do as well as we should is that we are all over-taught.

- Israel Gelfand

My life may be encapsulated by one of Graham Greene's "entertainments" titles: 'Loser Takes All'. Since I was thrown out of highschool for political …

- Israel Gelfand

If you understand something, you understand that it is obvious.

- Israel Gelfand

... The approach of von Neumann and Connes to the use of non-commutative algebra in physics is naive, the situation is much more complicated.

- Israel Gelfand

People (or students) do not have shortcomings, only uniquenesses. The goal of a good teacher is to turn these uniquenesses into advantages.

- Israel Gelfand

My seminar is for highschool students, decent undergraduates, bright graduates, and outstanding professors.

- Israel Gelfand