Carl Sandberg's Definition of Mathematics

I thought this was a playful take on the glories and furies of mathematics:

Arithmetic is where the answer is right and everything is nice and you can look out of the window and see the blue sky -- or the answer is wrong and you have to start all over and try again and see how it comes out this time.

By Carl Sandberg, from "Study is Hard Work", by William H. Armstrong, page 111