The case for my life... is this: that I have added something to knowledge, and helped others to add more G. H. Hardy More Quotes by G. H. Hardy More Quotes From G. H. Hardy A month's intelligent instruction in the theory of numbes ought to be twice as instructive, twice as useful, and at least 10 times as entertaining as the same amount of 'calculus for engineers'. G. H. Hardy intelligentmonthsinstruction Good work is not done by 'humble' men G. H. Hardy donehumblemen Most people can do nothing at all well G. H. Hardy wellscan-dopeople The theory of numbers, more than any other branch of mathematics, began by being an experimental science. Its most famous theorems have all been conjectured, sometimes a hundred years or more before they were proved; and they have been suggested by the evidence of a mass of computations. G. H. Hardy branchesnumbersyears It is hardly possible to maintain seriously that the evil done by science is not altogether outweighed by the good. For example, if ten million lives were lost in every war, the net effect of science would still have been to increase the average length of life. G. H. Hardy averagewarscience As Littlewood said to me once [of the ancient Greeks], they are not clever school boys or "scholarship candidates," but "Fellows of another college." G. H. Hardy cleverboysschool I wrote a great deal during the next ten [early] years,but very little of any importance; there are not more than four or five papers which I can still remember with some satisfaction. G. H. Hardy paperscienceyears The primes are the raw material out of which we have to build arithmetic, and Euclid's theorem assures us that we have plenty of material for the task. G. H. Hardy raw-materialstasksscience A mathematician ... has no material to work with but ideas, and so his patterns are likely to last longer, since ideas wear less with time than words. G. H. Hardy patternsscienceideas I count Maxwell and Einstein, Eddington and Dirac, among "real" mathematicians. The great modern achievements of applied mathematics have been in relativity and quantum mechanics, and these subjects are at present at any rate, almost as "useless" as the theory of numbers. G. H. Hardy realnumbersscience A chess problem is simply an exercise in pure mathematics. G. H. Hardy problemexercisechess 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. G. H. Hardy differencesdiscoveryscience No mathematician should ever allow himself to forget that mathematics, more than any other art or science, is a young man's game G. H. Hardy gamesmenart I do not know an instance of a major mathematical advance initiated by a man past fifty G. H. Hardy fiftymenpast The "seriousness" of a mathematical theorem lies, not in its practical consequences, which are usually negligible, but in the significance of the mathematical ideas which it connects. G. H. Hardy mathematicslyingideas As history proves abundantly, mathematical achievement, whatever its intrinsic worth, is the most enduring of all. G. H. Hardy mathematicsachievementhistory A chess problem is genuine mathematics, but it is in some way "trivial" mathematics. However, ingenious and intricate, however original and surprising the moves, there is something essential lacking. Chess problems are unimportant. The best mathematics is serious as well as beautiful-"important" if you like, but the word is very ambiguous, and "serious" expresses what I mean much better. G. H. Hardy beautifulmeanmoving The fact is there are few more popular subjects than mathematics. Most people have some appreciation of mathematics, just as most people can enjoy a pleasant tune. G. H. Hardy mathappreciationpeople A science is said to be useful if its development tends to accentuate the existing inequalities in the distribution of wealth, or more directly promotes the destruction of human life. G. H. Hardy distribution-of-wealthlifescience I was at my best at a little past forty, when I was a professor at Oxford. G. H. Hardy oxfordsciencepast
