Is there any relief from some of thesepressures that I've been outlining? I think there is. I just want to turn to afew of them. Let's take meritocracy. This idea that everybody deserves to getwhere they get to, I think it's a crazy idea, completely crazy. I will support any politician of Left and Right, with any halfway-decent meritocratic idea; I am a meritocrat in that sense. But I think it's insane to believe that we will ever make a society that is genuinely meritocratic; it's an impossible dream.
No one is an artist unless he carries his picture in his head before painting it.
We must face our reality through literature.
The arithmetic of elliptic curves is a microcosm of the deeper structures in number theory.
世界上充满了有梦想的人和有想法的人，但世界上也充满了从未付诸行动的人。
The best leaders are those most interested in surrounding themselves with assistants and associates smarter than they are.