The purpose of this little book is to invite the reader on a mathematical promenade. We pay a visit to Hipparchus, Newton and Gauss, but also to many contemporary mathematicians. We play with a bit of algebra, topology, geometry, complex analysis, combinatorics, and computer science.

This book, therefore, stands back from the issue to examine the French debate on national identity - a debate which is conventional, contradictory and lends itself to manipulation.

Travelling through time and space, the epigram — a short engraved poem that became a literary genre over time — came to stand at the intersection of epigraphy, archeology, literature and history. Standing at the very crossroad of these disciplines, this book intends to present its subject "dans tous ses états", that is to say in all its forms.

This book tries to understand how problems can be desirable by contrast with common sense which associates "problems" with "troubles". This research is in line with the great philosophies of the problem (Dewey, Bachelard, Deleuze, Meyer) with Michel Fabre has shown the importance to understand that it means to think.