A mathematical theory is not to be considered complete until you have made it so clear that you can explain it to the first man whom you meet on the street.

David Hilbert

If I were to awaken after having slept for a thousand years, my first question would be: Has the Riemann hypothesis been proven?

David Hilbert

Physics is actually too hard for physicists.

David Hilbert

For us there is no ignorabimus, and in my opinion none at all in natural science. Rather than this foolish ignorabimus our slogan shall be: Wir müssen wissen, wir werden wissen!

David Hilbert

Is mathematics doomed to suffer the same fate as other sciences that have split into separate branches?… Mathematics is, in my opinion, an indivisible whole.

David Hilbert

If one were to bring ten of the wisest men in the world together and ask them what was the most stupid thing in existence, they would not be able to discover anything so stupid as astrology.

David Hilbert

No one shall expel us from the paradise that Cantor has created for us.

David Hilbert

One can measure the importance of a scientific work by the number of earlier publications rendered superfluous by it.

David Hilbert

I didn’t work especially hard at mathematics at school, because I knew that’s what I’d be doing later.

David Hilbert

Mathematics knows no races or geographic boundaries; for mathematics, the cultural world is one country.

David Hilbert

We must not believe those who today, with philosophical bearing and superior tone, prophesy the decline of culture and accept the ignorabimus principle.

David Hilbert

Wir müssen wissen. Wir werden wissen.

David Hilbert