- ARCHIMEDES "If I had a fulcrum, I could move the world."
- DESCARTES He did not belong to this set, for he was a soldier before he was a mathematician.
- CARDANO He could not have "obtained" a dacron shirt, but he seems to have "acquired" a solution of a cubic equation.
- NAPIER He was not a Frenchman, and his "bones" were not kept in a basket.
- EULER He crossed bridges instead of streets.
- MENELAUS He was one of the few of the first century AD who did original mathematical work of any ability.
- WALLIS He had much to do with the founding of the Royal Society in England.
- LAPLACE He discovered a famous differential equation.
- OUGHTRED Yet he was delighted to hear of the king's return, and even invented a rule.
- DE MOIVRE He was chosen to decide the controversy over the discovery of the calculus.