Nature does not count nor do integers occur in nature. Man made them all, integers and all the rest, Kronecker to the contrary notwithstanding. – Percy William Bridgman, The Way Things Are
I used to love mathematics for its own sake, and I still do, because it allows for no hypocrisy and no vagueness…. – Stendhal (Henri Beyle), The Life of Henri Brulard
The mathematics are distinguished by a particular privilege, that is, in the course of ages, they may always advance and can never recede. – Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire