A Science Or An Art May Be

In These Days Of Conflict Between Ancient And Modern Studies, There Must Surely Be Something To Be Said For A Study Which Did Not Begin With Pythagoras, And Will Not End With Einstein, But Is The Oldest And The Youngest Of All.

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."

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.

A Person’s First Duty, A Young Person’s At Any Rate, Is To Be Ambitious, And The Noblest Ambition Is That Of Leaving Behind Something Of Permanent Value.

Sometimes One Has To Say Difficult Things, But One Ought To Say Them As Simply As One Knows How.