You cannot read mathematics superficially; the inescapable abstraction always has an element of self-torture in it, and the one to whom this self-torture is joy is the mathematician.

— Rózsa Péter, Playing with Infinity: Mathematical Explorations and Excursions (1976)

Source: https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Playing_with_Infinity.html?id=pj5G-3boMBwC

From the 1976 book Playing with Infinity.

Topics: mathematics