[gavinlit]

Reminds me of the old applied/pure mathematician distinction.
Applied mathematician - well it probably can be proved but we'll leave that to the pure mathematicians. It's enough for us that it seems to model the system.
Pure mathematician - what do you mean what's it used for?? That's for the applied mathematicians out there. We're just playing a game - as long as you can prove it's true that's all that matters.

Ok - now, because you've got me started, here's two maths quotes I like:
"I had a feeling once about Mathematics - that I saw it all. Depth beyond depth was revealed to me - the Byss and Abyss. I saw - as one might see the transit of Venus or even the Lord Mayor's Show - a quantity pasing through infinity and changing its sign from plus to minus. I saw exactly why it happened and why the tergiversation was inevitable but it was after dinner and I let it go."
Sir Winston Spencer Churchill

"The mathematician may be compared to a designer of garments, who is utterly oblivious of the creatures whom his garments may fit. To be sure, his art originated in the necessity for clothing such creatures, but this was long ago; to this day a shape will occsionally appear which will fit into the garment as if the garment had been made for it. Then ther is no end of surprise and delight"
Dantzig