- For since the fabric of the universe is most perfect, and is the work of a most wise Creator, nothing whatsoever takes place in the universe in which some relation of maximum and minimum does not appear. Wherefore there is absolutely no doubt that every effect in the universe can be explained as satisfactorily from final causes, by the aid of the method of maxima and minima, as it can from the effective causes themselves. — Leonhard Euler
- The subject of optimization is a fascinating blend of heuristics and rigour, of theory and experiment. — Roger Fletcher
- Wir mussen wissen, wir werden wissen! (We must know, we will know!) — David Hilbert
- A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems. — Alfred Renyi
- Linear programming can be viewed as part of a great revolutionary development which has given mankind the ability to state general goals and to lay out a path of detailed decisions to take in order to “best” achieve its goals when faced with practical situations of great complexity. — George Dantzig