“It is readily seen that any theory written by Laplace will be superior to all produced of lower standing. It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils.”

— Niels Henrik Abel

Marginal note in his mathematical notebook (ca. 1826) as quoted by Øystein Ore, Niels Henrik Abel: Mathematician Extraordinary (1957)

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Norwegian mathematician 1802–1829

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