The paramount obligation of a college is to develop in its students the ability to think clearly and independently and the ability to live confidently, courageously and hopefully.

What we admire and honor in the masters of our science is the penetrating thought and the broad vision that enabled them to uncover deeply hidden relationships and bring them to the light. The sense of having added an unforeseen truth to the treasury of knowledge is the greatest good fortune and the highest reward to which a mathematician aspires.

It is true that Fourier had the opinion that the principal aim of mathematics was public utility and explanation of natural phenomena; but a philosopher like him should have known that the sole end of science is the honor of the human mind, and that under this title a question about numbers is worth as much as a question about the system of the world.

The total number of Dirichlet's publications is not large: jewels are not weighed on a grocery scale.

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.

The state is made for man, not man for the state_….That is to say, the state should be our servant and not we its slaves.