G. H. Hardy Quotes

I am interested in mathematics only as a creative art.

It is here [in mathematics] that the artist has the fullest scope of his imagination.

Mathematics is not a contemplative but a creative subject.

I didn't want to become a pure mathematician, as a matter of fact, my uncle was one, so I knew what the pure mathematician was and I did not want to be a pure - I wanted to do something different.

The greatest mathematicians, as Archimedes, Newton, and Gauss, always united theory and applications in equal measure.

Mathematical discoveries, small or great are never born of spontaneous generation.

Mathematicians aren't motivated by money and material gain, or even by practical applications of their work. For us it's the glory of solving one of the great unsolved problems that have outwitted previous generations of mathematicians. …. Despite all the things we've discovered over the last 7 millennia, there are still many things we don't understand.

The essence of mathematics lies precisely in its freedom.

Mathematicians are stiff abstract guys. They'll tell you they don't need the physical world. But then when I show them my bubbles they're like little children.

You have to spend some energy and effort to see the beauty of math.

As the prerogative of Natural Science is to cultivate a taste for observation, so that of Mathematics is, almost from the starting point, to stimulate the faculty of invention.

The science of pure mathematics, in its modern developments, may claim to be the most original creation of the human spirit.

It seems to be expected of every pilgrim up the slopes of the mathematical Parnassus, that he will at some point or other of his journey sit down and invent a definite integral or two towards the increase of the common stock.

The true spirit of delight...is to be found in mathematics as surely as in poetry.

The creative principle [of science] resides in mathematics.

I do not know an instance of a major mathematical advance initiated by a man past fifty

As I turn 91 this June 8th, I have to admit my hours at the easel have diminished.

Before adolescence I had an incredible voice. Like when I was 12, 13, 14 - I was taking acting classes, I was painting, I was making music, I was taking photographs. I was kind of exploding creatively, and then something about adolescence really just ground that out of me.

Hip Hop has become real constrained. The creative juices and creative flows have been diminished.

Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

I hope that seeing the excitement of solving this problem will make young mathematicians realize that there are lots and lots of other problems in mathematics which are going to be just as challenging in the future.

It's fine to work on any problem, so long as it generates interesting mathematics along the way - even if you don't solve it at the end of the day.

We've lost something that's been with us for so long, and something that drew a lot of us into mathematics. But perhaps that's always the way with math problems, and we just have to find new ones to capture our attention.

Fractions, decimals, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, mechanics - these are the steps up the mountain side. How high is one going to get? For me, the pinnacle was Projective Geometry. Who today has even heard of this branch of mathematics?

Math research is more like a marathon.