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" There are proofs that date back to the Greeks that are still valid today. "
Andrew Wiles
Today
Date
Still
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" I grew up in Cambridge in England, and my love of mathematics dates from those early childhood days. "
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Childhood
Early
Love
" I tried to fit it in with some previous broad conceptual understanding of some part of mathematics that would clarify the particular problem I was thinking about. "
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Tried
Mathematics
Problem
" I realized that anything to do with Fermat's Last Theorem generates too much interest. "
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Interest
Much
Too Much
" I don't believe Fermat had a proof. I think he fooled himself into thinking he had a proof. "
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Believe
Thinking
Think
" Fermat said he had a proof. "
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Said
Had
He
" I really believed that I was on the right track, but that did not mean that I would necessarily reach my goal. "
Andrew Wiles
Reach
Right Track
Right
" The definition of a good mathematical problem is the mathematics it generates rather than the problem itself. "
Andrew Wiles
Mathematics
Than
Good
" I hope that seeing the excitement of solving this problem will make young mathematicians realize that there are lots and lots of other problems in mathematics which are going to be just as challenging in the future. "
Andrew Wiles
Hope
Future
Mathematics
" That particular odyssey is now over. My mind is now at rest. "
Andrew Wiles
Odyssey
Now
Mind
" I had this rare privilege of being able to pursue in my adult life, what had been my childhood dream. "
Andrew Wiles
Life
Childhood
Dream
" Always try the problem that matters most to you. "
Andrew Wiles
Try
Problem
Most
" But the best problem I ever found, I found in my local public library. "
Andrew Wiles
Problem
Public
Best
" Just because we can't find a solution it doesn't mean that there isn't one. "
Andrew Wiles
Just
Just Because
Mean
" Well, some mathematics problems look simple, and you try them for a year or so, and then you try them for a hundred years, and it turns out that they're extremely hard to solve. "
Andrew Wiles
Look
You
Simple
" However impenetrable it seems, if you don't try it, then you can never do it. "
Andrew Wiles
You
Seems
Try
" I loved doing problems in school. I'd take them home and make up new ones of my own. But the best problem I ever found, I found in my local public library. I was just browsing through the section of math books and I found this one book, which was all about one particular problem - Fermat's Last Theorem. "
Andrew Wiles
Book
Best
School
" Mathematicians aren't satisfied because they know there are no solutions up to four million or four billion, they really want to know that there are no solutions up to infinity. "
Andrew Wiles
Satisfied
Solutions
Want
" The only way I could relax was when I was with my children. "
Andrew Wiles
Relax
Could
Children
" I was so obsessed by this problem that I was thinking about it all the time - when I woke up in the morning, when I went to sleep at night - and that went on for eight years. "
Andrew Wiles
Night
Thinking
Sleep
" Perhaps the methods I needed to complete the proof would not be invented for a hundred years. So even if I was on the right track, I could be living in the wrong century. "
Andrew Wiles
Right
Wrong
Years
" Pure mathematicians just love to try unsolved problems - they love a challenge. "
Andrew Wiles
Pure
Try
Challenge
" I know it's a rare privilege, but if one can really tackle something in adult life that means that much to you, then it's more rewarding than anything I can imagine. "
Andrew Wiles
You
Privilege
I Can
" Then when I reached college I realized that many people had thought about the problem during the 18th and 19th centuries and so I studied those methods. "
Andrew Wiles
Then
College
People
" It's fine to work on any problem, so long as it generates interesting mathematics along the way - even if you don't solve it at the end of the day. "
Andrew Wiles
Mathematics
Day
Work