“Can you do Addition?” the White Queen asked. “What’s one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one?” “I don’t know,” said Alice. “I lost count.”
lewis Carroll, Through The Looking Glass
Zero is the first of ten symbols — the digits — with which we are able to represent any of an infinitude of numbers. Zero is also the first of the numbers which we must represent. Yet zero, first of the digits, was the last to be invented; and zero, first of the numbers, was the last to be discovered.
Constance reid, From Zero to Infinity