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We now come to a decisive step of mathematical abstraction: we forget about what the symbols stand for... [The mathematician] need not be idle; there are many operations which he may carry out with these symbols, without ever having to look at the things they stand for.

— Hermann Weyl The Mathematical Way of Thinking (1941)

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More quotes by Hermann Weyl

In these days the angel of topology and the devil of abstract algebra fight for the soul of each individual mathematical domain.

Hermann. Invariants. Duke Math. J. 5 (1939)

Symmetry is a vast subject, significant in art and nature. Mathematics lies at its root, and it would be hard to find a better one on which to demonstrate the working of the mathematical intellect.

Symmetry (1952)

Time is the primitive form of the stream of consciousness.

Space—Time—Matter (1952)

It is in the composite idea of motion that these three fundamental conceptions enter into intimate relationship.

Space—Time—Matter (1952)

Mathematics is the science of the infinite, its goal the symbolic comprehension of the infinite with human, that is finite, means.

The Open World: Three Lectures on the Metaphysical Implications of Science (1932)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Hermann Weyl (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.