If mathematics is important (and it certainly is), then so is mathematics education.  Mathematicians who don't deign to communicate their subject to a wider audience are a little like multimillionaires who don't contribute anything to charity.  Given the relatively low salaries of mathematicians, both failings might be overcome if multimillionaires supported mathematicians who wrote for a popular audience.  (Just a thought.)

Innumeracy, John Allen Paulos, p. 80