A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of poems. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas.

G.H. Hardy
About This Quote

A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of poems. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas. In this quote from The New York Review of Books , the author discusses the importance of mathematics and how mathematicians make poetry out of numbers by seeing patterns – a process that can be done through research, intellectual pursuits and collaboration.

Source: A Mathematicians Apology

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More Quotes By G.H. Hardy
  1. Define the word exist, and you'll know whether God exists.

  2. The mathematicians are the priests of the modern world.

  3. Extinction catches Man by surprise because no one can even imagine that such a catastrophe can happen to an intelligent species.

  4. If you can't illustrate 'it', 'it' doens't belong in Physics as a noun! You can't put an article in front. You can't put a verb after!

  5. A mathematician is an individual who believes that prophesying that his dog will die if he deprives it of food constitutes a prediction.

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