George Frederick James Temple on History of mathematics

“The historical approach introduces us personally to the great mathematicians and infuses a humane and genial spirit into what can be the most arid and abstract study.”

“The dull and pedestrian researches of Todhunter on the histories of probability, the calculus of variations and the theory of elasticity will always preserve their value for the historiographer.”

“The magnificent achievement of Bourbaki planned to present in an orderly sequence the whole of mathematics is already dated, and a new edition appears to need a complete revision based perhaps on category theory rather then on sets and logic.”

“Some of the great treatises can be criticized for some startling omissions. Forsyth wrote six volumes on differential equations without a mention of Poincare's geometric theory of ordinary differential equations. Bourbaki has summarized the foundations of topology without a mention of Kuratowski, J. W. Alexander or Veblen.”