The Creative Life Was The Only One

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.

If A Man Is In Any Sense A Real Mathematician, Then It Is A Hundred To One That His Mathematics Will Be Far Better Than Anything Else He Can Do, And That He Would Be Silly If He Surrendered Any Decent Opportunity Of Exercising His One Talent In Order To Do Undistinguished Work In Other Fields. Such A Sacrifice Could Be Justified Only By Economic Necessity Of Age.

[i Was Advised] To Read Jordan's 'cours D'analyse'; And I Shall Never Forget The Astonishment With Which I Read That Remarkable Work, The First Inspiration For So Many Mathematicians Of My Generation, And Learnt For The First Time As I Read It What Mathematics Really Meant.

A Mathematician ... Has No Material To Work With But Ideas, And So His Patterns Are Likely To Last Longer, Since Ideas Wear Less With Time Than Words.

There Is Always More In One Of Ramanujan's Formulae Than Meets The Eye, As Anyone Who Sets To Work To Verify Those Which Look The Easiest Will Soon Discover. In Some The Interest Lies Very Deep, In Others Comparatively Near The Surface; But There Is Not One Which Is Not Curious And Entertaining.