Mathematics is principally a tool to meditate, rather than to compute. - William Rowan Hamilton

Electromagnetic theory is entirely a mathematical theory illustrated by a few crude physical pictures. These pictures are no more than the clothes that dress up the body of mathematics and make it appear presentable in the society of sciences. ...Though he <nowiki>[</nowiki>James Clerk Maxwell<nowiki>]</nowiki> had tried desperately to build a physical account of electromagnetic phenomena, in his classic Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism he omitted most of this material and emphasized the highly polished, complex mathematical theory. ...Radio waves and light waves operate in a physical darkness illuminated only for those who would carry the torch of mathematics.

I had been to school most all the time and could spell and read and write just a little, and could say the multiplication table up to six times seven is thirty-five, and I don't reckon I could ever get any further than that if I was to live forever. I don't take no stock in mathematics anyway.

Comparatively few engineers are good mathematicians; and... it is fortunate that such is the case; for nature rarely combines high mathematical talent, with that practical tact, and observation of outward things, so essential to a successful engineer.
There have been... brilliant exceptions; but they are very rare. But few even of those who have been tolerable mathematicians when young, can, as they advance in years, and become engaged in business, spare the time necessary for retaining such accomplishments.