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. G. H. Hardy More Quotes by G. H. Hardy More Quotes From G. H. Hardy A man who sets out to justify his existence and his activities has to distinguish two different questions. The first is whether the work which he does is worth doing; and the second is why he does it (whatever its value may be). G. H. Hardy men two science What we do may be small, but it has a certain character of permanence; and to have produced anything of the slightest permanent interest, whether it be a copy of verses or a geometrical theorem, is to have done something utterly beyond the powers of the vast majority of men. G. H. Hardy character men science The creative life was the only one for a serious man. G. H. Hardy men life science 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. G. H. Hardy more like permanent ideas I wrote a great deal... but very little of any importance; there are not more than four of five papers which I can still remember with some satisfaction. G. H. Hardy great i-can satisfaction remember
