Skip to content

Reductio ad absurdum, which Euclid loved so much, is one of a mathematician's finest weapons. It is a far finer gambit than any chess gambit: a chess player may offer the sacrifice of a pawn or even a piece, but a mathematician offers the game.

— G. H. Hardy A Mathematician's Apology (1941)

Another quote →

More quotes by G. H. Hardy

A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas.

A Mathematician's Apology (1941)

If I knew I was going to die today, I think I should still want to hear the cricket scores.

A mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas.

Chess problems are the hymn-tunes of mathematics.

A Mathematician's Apology (1941)

If a man has any genuine talent, he should be ready to make almost any sacrifice in order to cultivate it to the full.

A Mathematician's Apology (1941)

All G. H. Hardy quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: G. H. Hardy (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.