A Chess Problem Is Simply An Exercise

I Do Not Remember Having Felt, As A Boy, Any Passion For Mathematics, And Such Notions As I May Have Had Of The Career Of A Mathematician Were Far From Noble. I Thought Of Mathematics In Terms Of Examinations And Scholarships: I Wanted To Beat Other Boys, And This Seemed To Be The Way In Which I Could Do So Most Decisively.

In These Days Of Conflict Between Ancient And Modern Studies, There Must Surely Be Something To Be Said For A Study Which Did Not Begin With Pythagoras, And Will Not End With Einstein, But Is The Oldest And The Youngest Of All.

Most People Have Some Appreciation Of Mathematics, Just As Most People Can Enjoy A Pleasant Tune; And There Are Probably More People Really Interested In Mathematics Than In Music. Appearances Suggest The Contrary, But There Are Easy Explanations. Music Can Be Used To Stimulate Mass Emotion, While Mathematics Cannot; And Musical Incapacity Is Recognized (no Doubt Rightly) As Mildly Discreditable, Whereas Most People Are So Frightened Of The Name Of Mathematics That They Are Ready, Quite Unaffectedly, To Exaggerate Their Own Mathematical Stupidity

It Is Rather Astonishing How Little Practical Value Scientific Knowledge Has For Ordinary Men, How Dull And Commonplace Such Of It As Has Value Is, And How Its Value Seems Almost To Vary Inversely To Its Reputed Utility.

Good Work Is Not Done By 'humble' Men