For over 5,000 years, civilizations have practiced arithmetic—the working with numbers—with all of life’s calculations built upon the wonders of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

“Wherever there is number,” said ancient Athenian mathematician Proclus, “there is beauty.”

The elegance of math echoes through time. In ancient Egypt, the Rhind Papyrus (1650 B.C.) described numbers as “directions for knowing all dark things.” Later, India pioneered our modern place-value system around 600 A.D.

“The object of mathematics,” noted Carl Jacobi, “is the honor of the human spirit.”

Called the “gate and key to the sciences” by Roger Bacon, math offers the joy of solving problems, exploring the unknown, and playing with the infinite—from budgets to galaxies to pie recipes.

Russian mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaya believed, “It is impossible to be a mathematician without being a poet in soul.”

And as Albert Einstein famously reminded us, “Don’t worry about your difficulties in mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.”