The Creative Life Was The Only One

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.

I Remember Once Going To See Him [ramanujan] When He Was Lying Ill At Putney. I Had Ridden In Taxi-cab No. 1729, And Remarked That The Number Seemed To Me Rather A Dull One, And That I Hoped It Was Not An Unfavourable Omen. "no," He Replied, "it Is A Very Interesting Number; It Is The Smallest Number Expressible As A Sum Of Two Cubes In Two Different Ways."

Reductio Ad Absurdum, Which Euclid Loved So Much, Is One Of A Mathematician's Finest Weapons. It Is A Far Finer Gambit Than Any Chess Play: A Chess Player May Offer The Sacrifice Of A Pawn Or Even A Piece, But A Mathematician Offers The Game.

Exposition, Criticism, Appreciation, Is Work For Second-rate Minds.

The Mathematician's Patterns, Like The Painter's Or The Poet's, Must Be Beautiful.