James J Sylvester (1814 - 1897)

I know, indeed, and can conceive of no pursuit so antagonistic to the cultivation of the oratorical faculty ... as the study of Mathematics. An eloquent mathematician must, from the nature of things, ever remain as rare a phenomenon as a talking fish, and it is certain that the more anyone gives himself up to the study of oratorical effect the less will he find himself in a fit state to mathematicize.

Another quotation by one of today's mathematicians

JOC/EFR October 2010 The URL of this page is:	School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Day_files/Day903.html