The Primes Are The Raw Material Out

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.

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

No One Has Yet Discovered Any Warlike Purpose To Be Served By The Theory Of Numbers Or Relativity, And It Seems Unlikely That Anyone Will Do So For Many Years.

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.

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.