Thomas Hirst (1830 - 1891)

10th August 1851: On Tuesday evening at Museum, at a ball in the gardens. The night was chill, I dropped too suddenly from Differential Calculus into ladies' society, and could not give myself freely to the change. After an hour's attempt so to do, I returned, cursing the mode of life I was pursuing; next morning I had already shaken hands, however, with Diff. Calculus, and forgot the ladies ...

Quoted in J H Gardner and R J Wilson, "Thomas Archer Hirst - Mathematician Xtravagant II - Student Days in Germany", The American Mathematical Monthly 6.

Another quotation by one of today's mathematicians

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