Fourier is a mathematical poem.
Loci: Convergence
Mathematical Quotations
Our library of quotations is organized alphabetically by surname of the author.
Hardy, Godfrey H. (1877 - 1947)
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.
Hardy, Godfrey H. (1877 - 1947)
The mathematician's patterns, like the painter's or the poet's must be beautiful; the ideas, like the colors or the words must fit together in a harmonious way. Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in this world for ugly mathematics.
Hardy, Godfrey H. (1877 - 1947)
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.
Hardy, Godfrey H. (1877 - 1947)
Young men should prove theorems; old men should write books.
Hardy, Godfrey H. (1877 - 1947)
There is no scorn more profound, or on the whole more justifiable, than that of the men who make for the men who explain. Exposition, criticism, appreciation, is work for second-rate minds.
Hardy, Godfrey H. (1877 - 1947)
In great mathematics there is a very high degree of unexpectedness, combined with inevitability and economy.
Hardy, Godfrey H. (1877 - 1947)
Pure mathematics is on the whole distinctly more useful than applied. For what is useful above all is technique, and mathematical technique is taught mainly through pure mathematics.
Hardy, Godfrey H. (1877 - 1947)
I am interested in mathematics only as a creative art.
Hardy, Godfrey H. (1877 - 1947)
Reductio ad absurdum, which Euclid loved so much, is one of a mathematician's finest weapons. It is a far finer gambit than any chess play: a chess player may offer the sacrifice of a pawn or even a piece, but a mathematician offers the game.
Hardy, Godfrey H. (1877 - 1947)
[On Ramanujan:]
I remember once
going to see him
when he was lying
ill at Putney. I had
ridden in taxi cab
number 1729 and
remarked that the
number seemed to me
rather a dull one,
and that I hoped it
was not an
unfavorable omen.
"No," he replied,
"it is a very
interesting number;
it is the smallest
number expressible
as the sum of two
cubes in two
different ways."