“Mathematics is the gate and key of the sciences. … Neglect of mathematics works injury to all knowledge, since he who is ignorant of it cannot know the other sciences or the things of this world. And what is worse, men who are thus Ignorant are unable to perceive their own ignorance and so do not seek a remedy.”

—  Roger Bacon , book Opus Majus

cited in: Morris Kline (1969) Mathematics and the physical world. p. 1
Opus Majus, c. 1267

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Roger Bacon 21
medieval philosopher and theologian 1220–1292

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As quoted in Building Fluency Through Practice and Performance (2008) by Timothy Rasinski and Lorraine Griffith, p. 64, but in fact a quotation by Roger Bacon: Et harum scientiarum porta et clavis est Mathematica, "And of these sciences the door and key is mathematics", from Bacon's Opus Majus (1267) https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=UfqcGd8NOFsC&pg=PA97&lpg=PA97&dq=%22porta+et+clavis%22+opus+majus&source=bl&ots=nGgt2Lhxqe&sig=88kIPB5EAKAKtm0APk6J5OrS1D0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiU36D2gIbLAhVBWBQKHSW9CKgQ6AEINDAE#v=onepage&q=%22porta%20et%20clavis%22%20opus%20majus&f=false.
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