G. H. Hardy

Bombs are probably more merciful than bayonets

— G. H. Hardy

Chess problems are the hymn-tunes of mathematics.

— G. H. Hardy

Exposition, criticism, appreciation, is work for second-rate minds.

— G. H. Hardy

The creative life was the only one for a serious man.

— G. H. Hardy

A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns.

— G. H. Hardy

Mathematics is not a contemplative but a creative subject.

— G. H. Hardy

A chess problem is simply an exercise in pure mathematics.

— G. H. Hardy

For any serious purpose, intelligence is a very minor gift.

— G. H. Hardy

The public does not need to be convinced that there is something in mathematics.

— G. H. Hardy

Asked if he believes in one G-d, a mathematician answered: "Yes, up to isomorphism".

— G. H. Hardy

Most people are so frightened of the name of mathematics that they are ready, quite unaffectedly, to exaggerate their own mathematical stupidity.

— G. H. Hardy

They [formulae 1.10 - 1.12 of Ramanujan] must be true because, if they were not true, no one would have had the…

— G. H. Hardy

It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do…

— G. H. Hardy

Archimedes will be remembered when Aeschylus is forgotten, because languages die and mathematical ideas do not.

— G. H. Hardy

I was at my best at a little past forty, when I was a professor at Oxford.

— G. H. Hardy

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

— G. H. Hardy

Greek mathematics is the real thing. The Greeks first spoke a language which modern mathematicians can understand... So Greek mathematics is 'permanent',…

— G. H. Hardy

If intellectual curiosity, professional pride, and ambition are the dominant incentives to research, then assuredly no one has a fairer chance of…

— G. H. Hardy

I propose to put forward an apology for mathematics; and I may be told that it needs none, since there are now…

— G. H. Hardy

The fact is there are few more popular subjects than mathematics. Most people have some appreciation of mathematics, just as most people…

— G. H. Hardy

The mathematician is in much more direct contact with reality. ... [Whereas] the physicist's reality, whatever it may be, has few or…

— G. H. Hardy

No one has yet discovered any warlike purpose to be served by the theory of numbers or relativity, and it seems unlikely…

— G. H. Hardy

“Imaginary’ universes are so much more beautiful than this stupidly constructed ‘real’ one; and most of the finest products of an applied…

— G. H. Hardy

If I could prove by logic that you would die in five minutes, I should be sorry you were going to die,…

— G. H. Hardy

Perhaps five or even ten per cent of men can do something rather well. It is a tiny minority who can do…

— G. H. Hardy

A chess problem is genuine mathematics, but it is in some way "trivial" mathematics. However, ingenious and intricate, however original and surprising…

— G. H. Hardy

There is always more in one of Ramanujan's formulae than meets the eye, as anyone who sets to work to verify those…

— G. H. Hardy

I have never done anything 'useful'. No discovery of mine has made, or is likely to make, directly or indirectly, for good…

— G. H. Hardy

When the world is mad, a mathematician may find in mathematics an incomparable anodyne. For mathematics is, of all the arts and…

— G. H. Hardy

I do not remember having felt, as a boy, any passion for mathematics, and such notions as I may have had of…

— G. H. Hardy

Mathematics is not a contemplative but a creative subject; no one can draw much consolation from it when he has lost the…

— G. H. Hardy

I am obliged to interpolate some remarks on a very difficult subject: proof and its importance in mathematics. All physicists, and a…

— G. H. Hardy

It is a melancholy experience for a professional mathematician to find himself writing about mathematics. The function of a mathematician is to…

— G. H. Hardy

“What is the proper justification of a mathematician’s life? My answers will be, for the most part, such as are expected from…

— G. H. Hardy

Young men should prove theorems, old men should write books.

— G. H. Hardy

A chess problem is an exercise in pure mathematics.

— G. H. Hardy

Good work is not done by 'humble' men

— G. H. Hardy

Most people can do nothing at all well

— G. H. Hardy

The creative life [is] the only one for a serious man.

— G. H. Hardy

I am interested in mathematics only as a creative art.

— G. H. Hardy