Quotations

Maurits Escher


View the biography of Maurits Escher


What I give form to in daylight is only one per cent of what I have seen in darkness.
Quoted in D MacHale, Comic Sections (Dublin 1993)
By keenly confronting the enigmas that surround us, and by considering and analysing the observations that I have made, I ended up in the domain of mathematics, Although I am absolutely without training in the exact sciences, I often seem to have more in common with mathematicians than with my fellow artists.
Quoted in E Maor, To infinity and beyond (Princeton 1991)
The laws of mathematics are not merely human inventions or creations. They simply 'are'; they exist quite independently of the human intellect. The most that any(one) ... can do is to find that they are there and to take cognizance of them.
There is something breathtaking about the basic laws of crystals. They are in no sense a discovery of the human mind; they just "are"  they exist quite independently of us. The most that man can do is become aware, in a moment of clarity, that they are there, and take cognizance of them.
I came to the . . . open gate of mathematics. From here, well-trodden paths lead in every direction, and since then I have often spent time there. Sometimes I think . . . I have trodden all the paths . . . and then I suddenly discover a new path and experience fresh delights.