Chess Problems Are The Hymn-tunes Of Mathematics.

What We Do May Be Small, But It Has A Certain Character Of Permanence; And To Have Produced Anything Of The Slightest Permanent Interest, Whether It Be A Copy Of Verses Or A Geometrical Theorem, Is To Have Done Something Utterly Beyond The Powers Of The Vast Majority Of Men.

I Count Maxwell And Einstein, Eddington And Dirac, Among "real" Mathematicians. The Great Modern Achievements Of Applied Mathematics Have Been In Relativity And Quantum Mechanics, And These Subjects Are At Present At Any Rate, Almost As "useless" As The Theory Of Numbers.

Most People Can Do Nothing At All Well

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.

The Creative Life Was The Only One For A Serious Man.