Lytton Strachey Quote

In pure mathematics the maximum of detachment appears to be reached: the mind moves in an infinitely complicated pattern, which is absolutely free from temporal considerations. Yet this very freedom - the essential condition of the mathematician's activity - perhaps gives him an unfair advantage. He can only be wrong - he cannot cheat.

Portraits in Miniature, Hume (pp. 141-142), Chatto & Windus. 1931