They [formulae 1.10 - 1.12 Of Ramanujan]

As Littlewood Said To Me Once [of The Ancient Greeks], They Are Not Clever School Boys Or "scholarship Candidates," But "fellows Of Another College."

The "seriousness" Of A Mathematical Theorem Lies, Not In Its Practical Consequences, Which Are Usually Negligible, But In The Significance Of The Mathematical Ideas Which It Connects.

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.

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.

I Am Obliged To Interpolate Some Remarks On A Very Difficult Subject: Proof And Its Importance In Mathematics. All Physicists, And A Good Many Quite Respectable Mathematicians, Are Contemptuous About Proof. I Have Heard Professor Eddington, For Example, Maintain That Proof, As Pure Mathematicians Understand It, Is Really Quite Uninteresting And Unimportant, And That No One Who Is Really Certain That He Has Found Something Good Should Waste His Time Looking For Proof.