G. H. Hardy

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G. H. Hardy
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The mathematician's patterns, like the painter's
or the poet's must be beautiful the ideas, like
the colours or the words must fit together in a
harmonious way. Beauty is the first test there
is no permanent place in this world for ugly
mathematics. A Mathematician's Apology (London
1941). http//www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/histor
y/Quotations/Hardy.html
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I believe that mathematical reality lies outside
us, that our function is to discover or observe
it, and that the theorems which we prove, and
which we describe grandiloquently as our
"creations," are simply the notes of our
observations. A Mathematician's Apology (London
1941).
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Hardy was filled with anger that Europe had again
entered the lunacy of war. However, Hardy had one
further gift to leave to the world, namely A
mathematicians apology which has inspired many
towards mathematics.
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solicitors and stockbrokers and bookmakers
often lead comfortable and happy lives, and it is
very difficult to see how the world is richer for
their existence. Is there any sense in which I
can claim that my life has been less futile than
theirs? It seems to me again that there is only
one possible answer yes, perhaps, but, if so,
for one reason only 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.
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Srinivasa Ramanujan
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Srinivasa Ramanujan was one of India's greatest
mathematical geniuses. He made substantial
contributions to the analytical theory of numbers
and worked on elliptic functions, continued
fractions, and infinite series.
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Ramanujan was born in his grandmother's house in
Erode, a small village about 400 km southwest of
Madras. When Ramanujan was a year old his mother
took him to the town of Kumbakonam, about 160 km
nearer Madras. His father worked in Kumbakonam as
a clerk in a cloth merchant's shop.
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Ramanujan came across a mathematics book by G S
Carr called Synopsis of elementary results in
pure mathematics. This book, with its very
concise style, allowed Ramanujan to teach himself
mathematics, but the style of the book was to
have a rather unfortunate effect on the way
Ramanujan was later to write down mathematics
since it provided the only model that he had of
written mathematical arguments.
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I remember once going to see him when he was
lying ill at Putney. I had ridden in taxi cab
number 1729 and remarked that the number seemed
to me rather a dull one, and that I hoped it was
not an unfavorable omen. "No," he replied, "it is
a very interesting number it is the smallest
number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two
different ways." Ramanujan (London 1940).
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