most recent 30 from http://mathoverflow.net 2013-05-24T22:24:46Z http://mathoverflow.net/feeds/question/100316 http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/rdf http://mathoverflow.net/questions/100316/raoul-botts-quote-on-morse-theory-cited-by-bestvina-and-kahle-where-is-it-from Vidit Nanda 2012-06-22T01:01:14Z 2012-06-24T21:17:56Z

<p>I wanted to properly cite the following awesome quote:</p> <blockquote> <p>Every mathematician has a secret weapon. Mine is Morse theory. - Raoul Bott</p> </blockquote> <p>Now this has been attributed to Bott in precisely two places that I can find: the older of the two is Bestvina's work on PL Morse theory <a href="http://www.math.utah.edu/~bestvina/eprints/minicourse.pdf" rel="nofollow">here</a> and the more recent occurrence is in the 14th slide of Kahle's talk available as a rather large pdf file <a href="http://matthewkahle.org/sites/default/files/papers/ColoradoState.pdf" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</p> <p>Question:</p> <blockquote> <p>What is the original reference for this quote?</p> </blockquote> <p>I've combed through the likely suspect, <em>Morse theory indomitable</em> available <a href="http://archive.numdam.org/article/PMIHES_1988__68__99_0.pdf" rel="nofollow">here</a> but the quote does not appear to be in that paper</p>

http://mathoverflow.net/questions/100316/raoul-botts-quote-on-morse-theory-cited-by-bestvina-and-kahle-where-is-it-from/100545#100545 Vidit Nanda 2012-06-24T21:17:56Z 2012-06-24T21:17:56Z

<p>Here is Mladen's response to my email asking this question:</p> <blockquote> <p>I heard him say it in a colloquium talk in 2001 (I think).</p> </blockquote> <p>Case closed, unless Bob MacPherson has a different answer.</p>