I wrote a great deal... but very little of any importance; there are not more than four of five papers which I can still remember with some satisfaction.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the author's realization that much of their written work lacks significance, highlighting the importance of quality over quantity.
G. H. Hardy's quote expresses a candid acknowledgment of his own literary output, suggesting that despite writing extensively, he only values a handful of his works. This introspection reveals a deeper philosophical perspective on the nature of achievement and the fleeting nature of recognition, emphasizing that it is not the volume of work that defines its worth but the impact and significance of a few select pieces.
In practice
In a motivational speech discussing the value of meaningful contributions.
A chess problem is genuine mathematics, but it is in some way "trivial" mathematics. However, ingenious and intricate, however original and surprising the moves, there is something essential lacking. Chess problems are unimportant. The best mathematics is serious as well as beautiful-"important" if you like, but the word is very ambiguous, and "serious" expresses what I mean much better.
Mathematics is not a contemplative but a creative subject; no one can draw much consolation from it when he has lost the power or the desire to create; and that is apt to happen to a mathematician rather soon. It is a pity, but in that case he does not matter a great deal anyhow, and it would be silly to bother about him.
Exposition, criticism, appreciation, is work for second-rate minds.
It is hardly possible to maintain seriously that the evil done by science is not altogether outweighed by the good. For example, if ten million lives were lost in every war, the net effect of science would still have been to increase the average length of life.
Real mathematics must be justified as art if it can be justified at all.
If intellectual curiosity, professional pride, and ambition are the dominant incentives to research, then assuredly no one has a fairer chance of gratifying them than a mathematician.
They would need to be already wise, in order to love wisdom.
So why do I write, torturing myself to put it down? Because in spite of myself I've learned some things. Without the possibility of action, all knowledge comes to one labeled "file and forget," and I can neither file nor forget. Nor will certain ideas forget me; they keep filing away at my lethargy, my complacency. Why should I be the one to dream this nightmare?
Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything.
Whenever there is a simple error that most laymen fall for, there is always a slightly more sophisticated version of the same problem that experts fall for.
All good is born in prayer, and all good springs from it.
True meditation can never be done with the mind. Very often we make a mistake when we say that we are meditating in the mind and utilising the mind. Real meditation is done in the psychic being and in the soul. It goes hand in hand with flaming aspiration, the burning flame that wants to climb up to the Highest.
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