What is Combinatorics? (A collection of quotes by Igor Pak)

This is a collection of quotes by various authors, trying, succeeding and occasionally failing to define it. They are listed in chronological order. Some of the early quotes are barely comprehensible, later quotes are somewhat defensive and most recent are rather upbeat. Read them all! - IP

P.S. If you are curious about my own views on this, read it in this blog post (2013), and the first answer in this interview (2021, errata here).
See also a much shorter collection of "just combinatorics" quotes.



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Last updated: 6/1/2023.

Latest additions: quotes from Brown-Guy (2020) and Golomb-Liu (2021).