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I am looking for an exact quote from Jean Dieudonné saying more or less that

there are three kinds of important problems in mathematics: problems of existence, classification and construction.

The quote may be in French or English, I guess I have read it in the forewords of one of his books, but I can't find it now. I also browsed his book "Pour l'honneur de l'esprit humain" without success.

EDIT: I am starting to doubt that it is a quote from Dieudonné. It could be from Andre Weil instead….

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    $\begingroup$ I found a (let's say) triality of his in cairn.info/revue-francaise-de-sociologie-1-2009-2-page-351.htm paragraph 61. The quote you give is a little strange as is, as existence and construction largely overlap -and intuitionists would equate them. I'm going to look for it a little more. $\endgroup$
    – plm
    Commented Sep 26, 2023 at 14:45
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    $\begingroup$ with "triality" you mean "structural, geometric, and calculatory intuition"? $\endgroup$
    – Carlo Beenakker
    Commented Sep 26, 2023 at 18:31
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    $\begingroup$ Hi @CarloBeenakker. I was more shallow: the article i link to explains how Dieudonné classified mathematicians into three classes. To call that, i was hesitating between "trio", "triplet", and then came "triality" which reminded me of Tits and Bourbaki, of (bi)linear algebra, so of Dieudonné. Plus i thought Dieudonné would not have disowned the taoist (traoist ?) flavor of the word, as many Bourbaki mathematicians were fond of Asia and traveled there. Also Weil defended that lesser mathematicians were necessary for the more brilliant ones to exist, a view which fits the -lity view. $\endgroup$
    – plm
    Commented Sep 27, 2023 at 3:02
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    $\begingroup$ @pim Thanks for your interesting reference. This is not the quote I am looking for though. $\endgroup$
    – coudy
    Commented Sep 27, 2023 at 11:00
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    $\begingroup$ @plm P. Dugac wrote a biography about Dieudonne in French. "Jean Dieudonné, mathématicien complet", Paris, J. Gabay, 1995. $\endgroup$
    – coudy
    Commented Sep 27, 2023 at 16:25

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