Misha Gromov's answer to the question: Is mathematics invented or discovered\ ?

Is mathematics invented or discovered\ ?

Even if we ever learned the answers we would be as dissatisfied as an ancient g\ eographer if his straightforward question:

Does the Earth rest on a whale or an the backs of four elephants?
were befuddled by:
Nothing exists except atoms in the void; everything else is opinion.
Leucippus? Democritus? Lucretius?
We, mathematicians, are an equally long way from asking the right questions.

In: Mathematics. A Beautiful Elsewhere. Fondation Cartier pour l'art comtemporain. (2011) p.66.