More by G. H. Hardy
If I could prove by logic that you would die in five minutes, I should be sorry you were going to die, but my sorrow would be very much mitigated by pleasure in the proof.
The geometer offers ...a whole set of maps from which to choose.
A Mathematician's Apology (1941)
No discovery of mine has made, or is likely to make, directly or indirectly, for good or ill, the least difference to the amenity of the world.
A Mathematician's Apology (1941)
Archimedes will be remembered when Aeschylus is forgotten, because languages die and mathematical ideas do not. "Immortality" may be a silly word, but probably a mathematician has the best chance of whatever it may mean.
A Mathematician's Apology (1941)
No one has yet discovered any warlike purpose to be served by the theory of numbers or relativity, and it seems unlikely that anyone will do so for many years.
A Mathematician's Apology (1941)
The mathematician’s patterns, like the painter’s or the poet’s must be beautiful; the ideas like the colours or the words, must fit together in a harmonious way. Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics.
A Mathematician's Apology (1941)
It is never worth a first-class man's time to express a majority opinion. By definition, there are plenty of others to do that. (pg 46)
A Mathematician's Apology (1941)
317 is a prime, not because we think so, or because our minds are shaped in one way rather than another, but because it is so, because mathematical reality is built that way.
A Mathematician's Apology (1941)
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