Andrews on the irrelevancy of numbers in mathematics

“To the unsophisticated observer of mathematics, it may appear that the use of numbers is the critical characteristic of disciplines which use mathematics, and that one can thus make a discipline more scientific by involving numbers in it more deeply. However, the really fundamental feature of mathematics is not numbers but logical rigor. While arguments involving numbers are often rigorous, it will be seen that a standard of rigor can be defined and maintained whether numbers are involved or not.”
— Andrews (2002, p. 3)