- Hilbert: This reminds me of the riddle about the shepherd who has to cross the river in a boat with a sheep, a wolf and a cabbage. You know it? Only two can go in the boat. For example, the shepherd and the sheep, or the shepherd and the cabbage. You have to work out how he can cross the river without the wolf eating the sheep or the sheep eating the cabbage.
- Pascal: Why would a shepherd bring a wolf? What's more, I don't see what it has to do with this situation.
- Oliva: Perhaps Professor Hilbert meant that one of us is the shepherd; another, the wolf; another, the sheep; and another, the cabbage.
- [first lines]
- Galois: Do you know what prime numbers are? Because if you don't, you should just leave now.
- Hilbert: I return video tapes without rewinding them, I lie in electoral surveys. I take communion without fasting. I pick fruit without wearing plastic gloves. Could anyone hate me for things like that?