Quotes by Emile Picard

"These speculations about infinity are a completely new chapter in the history of mathematics of recent years, but it is necessary to recognize that this chapter does not escape paradoxes. Thus, one can define certain numbers that belong, and at the same time do not belong, to specific sets. All problems of this type are caused by a lack of agreement on what existence means. Some believers in set theory are scholastics who would have loved to discuss the proofs of the existence of God with Saint Anselme and his opponent Gaunilon, the monk of Noirmoutiers."