G. H. Hardy Quotes

For scholars and laymen alike it is not philosophy but active experience in mathematics itself that can alone answer the question: What is mathematics?

I am interested in mathematics only as a creative art.

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.

I remember having this vague idea that what mathematicians did was that some authority, someone, gave them problems to solve, and they just sort of solved them.

The calculus is the story this [the Western] world first told itself as it became the modern world.

Kid's, Life's too short to be organized. Follow your dreams first, then organize later.

Art is good for my soul precisely because it reminds me that we have souls in the first place.

The total subject of mathematics is clearly too broad for any of us. I do not think that any mathematician since Gauss has covered it uniformly and fully; even Hilbert did not and all of us are of considerably lesser width quite apart from the question of depth than Hilbert.

First of all, begin to live out of the glory of your imagination, not your memory.

In every true searcher of Nature there is a kind of religious reverence, for he finds it impossible to imagine that he is the first to have thought out the exceedingly delicate threads that connect his perceptions

I begin with writing the first sentence—and trusting to Almighty God for the second.

I'm always interested in understanding the math of things and understanding as much as I can about all aspects of business. And what I learn today may be useful to me two years from now. That's really the wonderful thing about investments is your knowledge is cumulative.

I am always trying to do something new and different. The first step is curiosity, questions. You pay attention to what fascinates you. If you can't shake it, there is something there.

First, meditation, and then out of meditation comes creativity of its own accord.

May your first word be adventure and last word love.

I like the inspiration of the first take.

First one must change. I first watch myself, check myself, then expect changes from others.

Genius sees the dynamic purpose first, find reasons afterward.

Nobody listens to mathematicians.

One does not, by knowing all the physical laws as we know them today, immediately obtain an understanding of anything much. I love only nature, and I hate mathematicians.

I've always dabbled. I've always nearly written a book, I've always tried painting, I've always tried to make something out of ideas, really. It was never a plan. I never thought, "Right. First I'll get famous, and then I'll do a book.

Here is the first step toward success. It's a basic step. It can't be avoided. Step One: Believe in yourself, believe you can succeed.

We find in the history of ideas mutations which do not seem to correspond to any obvious need, and at first sight appear as mere playful whimsies such as Apollonius' work on conic sections, or the non-Euclidean geometries, whose practical value became apparent only later.