Quotes from E.T.Bell : "The Development of Mathematics", McGraw-Hill (1945) :

p.248 : on the abstract method ( since D.Hilbert ):
" .... viewing the vast accumulations in abstract geometry, abstract algebra
and abstract analysis of the twentieth century ..... " :
" The root of these troubles is the unimaginative lack of a clearly recognized objective.
If the aim is merely to create new theories which many find intensely interesting
and even beautiful, then the abstract method keeps on reaching its goal."

p.510 : On specialisation and communication :
" To interrupt one's own researches in order to follow those of another is a scientific pleasure
which most experts delegate to their assistants. Consequently, the confusion of tongues
increases as the square of the number of talkers, until only ever more select coteries
of narrow specialists really understand the refinements of their esoteric vocabularies."

p.208 : On rivalry and inertia in mathematics (re: vector and matrix analysis):
". . . Frenchmen, Germans, and Italians, urging their respective substitutes for quaternions,
added to the din. By the second decade of the twentieth century there was a babel of conflicting
vector algebras, each fluently spoken only by its inventor and his few chosen disciples.
If, at any time in the brawling half-century after 1862, the bickering sects had stopped quarreling
for half an hour to listen attentively to what Grassmann was doing his philosophical best to tell them,
the noisy battle would have ended as abruptly as a thunderclap. Such, at any rate, seems to have been
the opinion of Gibbs. In retrospect, the fifty-year war between quaternions and its rivals for scientific
favor, appears as an interminable sequence of duels fought with stuffed clubs in a vacuum over nothing.

" I am afraid that mathematics will perish before the end of this century if the present trend
of senseless abstraction - as I call it : theory of the empty set - cannot be blocked."
- - - ( C.L.Siegel in a letter to L.J.Mordell, 1964 )

"Water reaches its goal by flowing continuously,
. . . filling up every depression before it flows on.
So if one is sincere when confronted with difficulties,
the heart can penetrate the meaning of the situation.
. . . Once we gain inner mastery of a problem, then our action
will succeed naturally - doing what is necessary, without fear."
- - - ( I-Ching #29 = K'an : Water : 010.010 )

" Be kind, proud and fearless." - - - ( Nabokov )

" I would like to make a confession which may seem immoral:
- I do not believe in Hilbert space anymore." -- J. von Neumann in a letter to G.D.Birkhoff
(13nov1935) Proc. Symp Pure Math, V2 p158 (ed. R.Dilworth), AMS'61, Rhode Island.

" Why don't we all say this? Why don't we take notice of what the experts, almost
to a man, thought of their own precious theory by the time they reached old age? "
- - - Caroline H Thompson (wsm-1556, 31mar04)

pg 190: "We are not compelled to follow the pathway of mathematical physics,
as if it were somehow intrinsic to nature. But we may easily lose sight of this fact.
Developing an awareness of the historical dimension inherent in scientific knowledge
helps us to counteract this tendency. As Huebner puts it:

" Insight into this historical conditioning prevents the progressive
  degeneration which so often accompanies the acceptance of scientific
  positions - a degeneration which moves
    first to the level of uncritical acceptance,
    then to a level where it is thought to be self-evident,
    ending in a stage where all questions disappear.
  Historical awareness possesses a critical function here:
    over and over again it tracks down origins that have only
    contigent meanings, and thus lack necessity or compelling grounds.
  It is precisely for this reason that historical consciousness can
  reject such positions."

Jamblicus (240 AD) in "The life of Pythagoras" . . . (Ch. XXIX p. 126) :
. . " He who first divulged the theory of commensurable and incommensurable quantities,
. . to those who were unworthy to receive it, was so hated by the Pythagoreans that they
. . not only expelled him from their common association, and from living with them, but also
. . constructed a tomb for him." . . (viz: Research is worthy of our attention, but up to a point ;-)

--- NB: Such was, and essentially still is, the state of afairs in science & mathematics :
. . . . . 'Wat de boer niet kent, dat eet hij niet' = What is new and doesn't fit, is not accepted.
( "The role of prejudice in the exact sciences": - On the inertia of Mass and of Thinking-frames :
. . ask Copernicus, G.Bruno, G.Galileo, J.Kepler, J.Fourier, E.Galois, G.Cantor, F.Hoyle, &c.)

David Petry on the trend of maths towards severe abstraction :
http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=1212029&tstart=0

"Anyway, just by coincidence, I've been reading through Morris Kline's book,
"MATHEMATICS: The Loss of Certainty", and found the following quotes
near the end of the chapter "The isolation of mathematics", which address that
very issue. Basically, Kline is lamenting the distancing of mathematics from science,
and the trend towards severe abstraction.
--(NB : His views more or less coincide with my views on this issue).

Morris Kline was a professor of mathematics at New York University.
His obituary (and short biography) is online :
http://www.marco-learningsystems.com/pages/kline/obituary.html

** Quote from Morris Kline **
. . . But most mathematicians have abandoned their traditions and heritage.
The pregnant messages that nature sends to the senses now fall on closed eyes and
inattentive ears. Mathematicians live on the reputation earned by their predecessors
and still expect the acclaim and support that the older work warranted.
The pure mathematicians have gone further. They have expelled the applied
mathematicians from their fraternity in the hope that by cornering the honorable title
of mathematician they alone will gain the glory accorded to their predecessors.
They have thrown away their rich source of ideas and are now spending their previously
accumulated wealth. They have followed a gleam that has led them out of this world.
It is true that some, aware of the noble tradition that motivated mathematical reasearch
in the past and warranted the honor accorded to the Newtons and Gausses, still claim
potential value of their mathematical work for science. They speak of creating models
for science. But in truth they are not concernned with this goal. In fact, since most
modern mathematicians know no science, the can't be creating models.
They prefer to remain virgins rather than to bed with science. On the whole mathematics
is now turned inward; it feeds on itself. And it is extreemely unlikely, if one may judge by
what happened in the past, that most of modern mathematical research will ever contribute
to the advancement of science, and mathematics may be doomed to grope in the darkness.
Mathematics is now an almost entirely self-contained enterprise. - Moving in the direction
determined by its own criteria of relevance and excellence, it is even proud of its independence
from outside problems, motivations, and inspirations. Math no longer has unity and purpose.

... The fact that mathematics is valuable because it contributes to the understanding
and mastery of nature, has been lost sight of.
... Blinded by a centrury of ever purer mathematics, most mathematicians have lost
the skill and the will to read the book of nature.
... Like the mathematicians Gulliver met on his voyage to Laputa, the purists live on an
island suspended in the air above the earth. They will live for a while in the atmosphere
which mathematicians of the past supplied to the subject, but they are doomed ultimately
to expire in a vacuum.
... The work of the idealist who ignores reality will not survive.
... Mathematicians may like to soar into the clouds of abstract thought,
. . . but like birds they must return to earth for food.

** End quote **