Intuition is the conception of an attentive mind, so clear, so distinct, and so effortless that we cannot doubt what we have so conceived.

—René Descartes

TOPICS: intuition, philosophy, psychology

This therefore is Mathematics:
    She reminds you of the invisible forms of the soul;
    She gives life to her own discoveries;
    She awakens the mind and purifies the intellect;
    She brings light to our intrinsic ideas;
    She abolishes oblivion and ignorance which are ours by birth.

—Proclus Diadochus

TOPICS: learning, education, philosophy, psychology

A  man should be learned in several sciences, and should have a reasonable, philosophical and in some measure a mathematical head, to be a complete and excellent poet.

—John Dryden

TOPICS: poetry, psychology, art, science