It is never worth a first class man’s time to express a majority opinion. By definition, there are plenty of others to do that.
G. H. Hardy (1877-1947) British mathematician [Godfrey Harold Hardy]
(Attributed)
Quoted by C.P. Snow in the 1992 forward to Hardy's A Mathematician's Apology (1941). (Full text) Also sometimes quoted as: "It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that."
Quotations by:
Hardy, G. H.
317 is a prime, not because we think so, or because our minds are shaped in one way rather than another, but because it is so, because mathematical reality is built that way.
G. H. Hardy (1877-1947) British mathematician [Godfrey Harold Hardy]
A Mathematician’s Apology (1941)
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.
G. H. Hardy (1877-1947) British mathematician [Godfrey Harold Hardy]
A Mathematician’s Apology (1941)