TITLE: What is the source of this famous Grothendieck quote?
QUESTION [44 upvotes]: I've seen the following quote many times on the internet, and have used it myself. It is usually attributed to Grothendieck.

It is better to have a good category with bad objects than a bad category with good objects.

Question: Does anyone know the source of this quote, or at least when it first appears, or when it was first attributed to Grothendieck?
I wish I were able to properly cite this popular and insightful quote.

Added: On a related topic, another quote I wish I could cite properly, usually attributed to Manin, reads:

Proofs are more important than theorems, definitions are more important than proofs.

Does anyone know a source for this quote?

REPLY [14 votes]: I would be surprised if the purported Grothendieck quote is really his.  He does not lean to the short and sweet. It sounds more like an adaptation of another thing Deligne says in "Quelques idées maitresses de l'oeuvre de Grothendieck" (p. 13): "if the decision to let every commutative ring define a scheme gives standing to bizarre schemes, allowing it gives a category of schemes with nice properties."