G. H. Hardy Quotes

Mathematics is not a contemplative but a creative subject; no one can draw much consolation from it when he has lost the power or the desire to create; and that is apt to happen to a mathematician rather soon. It is a pity, but in that case he does not matter a great deal anyhow, and it would be silly to bother about him.

The greatest mathematicians, as Archimedes, Newton, and Gauss, always united theory and applications in equal measure.

Mathematical discoveries, small or great are never born of spontaneous generation.

It takes so long to train a physicist to the place where he understands the nature of physical problems that he is already too old to solve them.

People over 45 basically die in terms of new ideas.

It's rare that you see an artist in his 30s or 40s able to really contribute something amazing.

In the future, as in the past, the great ideas [of mathematics] must be simplifying ideas, the creator must always be one who clarifies, for himself, and for others, the most complicated issues of formulas and concepts.

It seems to be expected of every pilgrim up the slopes of the mathematical Parnassus, that he will at some point or other of his journey sit down and invent a definite integral or two towards the increase of the common stock.

Theorists tend to peak at an early age; the creative juices tend to gush very early and start drying up past the age of fifteen-or so it seems. They need to know just enough; when they're young they haven't accumulated the intellectual baggage.

There are people much better placed to make music than me. It's always been a young person's game.

They say you hit your stride as a writer at about 50. I'm hoping to do that.

You have to spend some energy and effort to see the beauty of math.

As the prerogative of Natural Science is to cultivate a taste for observation, so that of Mathematics is, almost from the starting point, to stimulate the faculty of invention.

Statistically, it would seem improbable that any mathematician or scientist, at the age of 66, would be able through continued research efforts, to add much to his or her previous achievements. However I am still making the effort and it is conceivable that with the gap period of about 25 years of partially deluded thinking providing a sort of vacation my situation may be atypical. Thus I have hopes of being able to achieve something of value through my current studies or with any new ideas that come in the future.

It is here [in mathematics] that the artist has the fullest scope of his imagination.

One factor that has remained constant through all the twists and turns of the history of physical science is the decisive importance of the mathematical imagination.

The science of pure mathematics, in its modern developments, may claim to be the most original creation of the human spirit.

Modern man was not meant to do his best work before forty but is by nature, and is becoming more so, an afternoon and evening worker.

The true spirit of delight...is to be found in mathematics as surely as in poetry.

The creative principle [of science] resides in mathematics.

Professional motorcycle riders that are pretty young because it's a young man's sport. You're like out of your prime if you're in your mid to late 20s. Which is awful but a lot of guys still do ride into their late 20s. I rode. I just didn't do any of the jumps or races.

Who else but the maestro of mathematical creativity, Clifford Pickover, to curate a museum of Strange Brains and write biographies of the scientific geniuses who formerly owned them? I'll never look at a pigeon, a pearl, or a Wheatstone bridge the same way again.

At eleven I was at the peak of my creative powers: I was writing stories and playlets, putting together poetryprojects. I was absorbed by my 'work.' At twelve I was no longer reading or writing, just counting off days and checking them off. I was interested in survival.

Euler - The unsurpassed master of analytic invention.

Mathematics is not a contemplative but a creative subject.