G. H. Hardy
G. H. Hardy
Godfrey Harold "G. H." Hardy FRS was an English mathematician, known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionMathematician
Date of Birth7 February 1877
silly mean math
Archimedes will be remembered when Aeschylus is forgotten, because languages die and mathematical ideas do not. "Immortality" may be a silly word, but probably a mathematician has the best chance of whatever it may mean.
art science men
A science or an art may be said to be "useful" if its development increases, even indirectly, the material well-being and comfort of men, it promotes happiness, using that word in a crude and commonplace way.
sacrifice men order
Perhaps five or even ten per cent of men can do something rather well. It is a tiny minority who can do anything really well, and the number of men who can do two things well is negligible. If a man has any genuine talent, he should be ready to make almost any sacrifice in order to cultivate it to the full.
art creative mathematics
I am interested in mathematics only as a creative art.
imagination ramanujan being-true
They [formulae 1.10 - 1.12 of Ramanujan] must be true because, if they were not true, no one would have had the imagination to invent them.
knowledge intelligent men
It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that.
art men mad
When the world is mad, a mathematician may find in mathematics an incomparable anodyne. For mathematics is, of all the arts and sciences, the most austere and the most remote, and a mathematician should be of all men the one who can most easily take refuge where, as Bertrand Russell says, "one at least of our nobler impulses can best escape from the dreary exile of the actual world."
lying taxi-cabs two
I remember once going to see him [Ramanujan] when he was lying ill at Putney. I had ridden in taxi-cab No. 1729, and remarked that the number seemed to me rather a dull one, and that I hoped it was not an unfavourable omen. "No," he replied, "it is a very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as a sum of two cubes in two different ways."
escaping discovery differences
I have never done anything 'useful'. 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... Judged by all practical standards, the value of my mathematical life is nil; and outside mathematics it is trivial anyhow. I have just one chance of escaping a verdict of complete triviality, that I may be judged to have created something worth creating. And that I have created something is undeniable: the question is about its value.
lying believe math
I believe that mathematical reality lies outside us, that our function is to discover or observe it, and that the theorems which we prove, and which we describe grandiloquently as our "creations," are simply the notes of our observations.
afraid ally expect leading liberal might somebody surprise views
I don't think he is somebody you need to be afraid of if you're a liberal ... I don't see him as a person who will be shoving his views down your throat. I think he might surprise a lot of liberals. Conservatives may be saying, 'Aha, we have a person who will do our agenda,' ... they may find he is an ally but don't expect him to be leading all the charges.
billboard corporate event
I don't want to see the event become a corporate billboard but if that's the only way it can go on and if it's done tastefully ... it would be appreciated if it's necessary.
babies
He's my baby. So we have to give him a name.
current keeping key laws sure
The key is making sure the laws we have in place are keeping current with the times.