Ennio De Giorgi (1928-1996)

Mathematics is one of the most significant manifestations of the love of wisdom. As such it is characterized on the one hand by a great freedom, the other from the intuition that the world is made of things visible and invisible, and mathematics has perhaps an ability, unique among the other sciences, to pass from the observation of visible things imagination of things unseen. Perhaps this is the secret of the strength of mathematics.