Exposition, criticism, appreciation, is work for second-rate minds.
Interpretation
G. H. Hardy suggests that true intellectual work goes beyond mere analysis and requires creativity and original thought.
In this quote, G. H. Hardy emphasizes the distinction between superficial analyses of work and the deeper, original contributions of great minds. He implies that those who are limited to exposition, criticism, and appreciation lack the originality required to create real advancements in thought or art. For Hardy, the highest form of intellectual engagement is not just about understanding or evaluating previous work, but also about creating something new and valuable.
In practice
In a speech about innovation, one might quote Hardy to emphasize the importance of originality over imitation.
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.
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.
There is no scorn more profound, or on the whole more justifiable, than that of the men who make for the men who explain. Exposition, criticism, appreciation, is work for second-rate minds.
The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.
One can't believe impossible things.
Memory offers up its gifts only when jogged by something in the present. It isn't a storehouse of fixed images and words, but a dynamic associative network in the brain that is never quiet and is subject to revision each time we retrieve an old picture or old words.
a person is never entirely holy or entirely sinful.
Our enmity toward God takes on many labels, such as rebellion, hard-heartedness, stiff-neckedness, unrepentant, puffed up, easily offended, and sign seekers. The proud wish God would agree with them. They aren't interested in changing their opinions to agree with God's.
It is not greedy to enjoy a good dinner, any more than it is to enjoy a good concert. But I do think there is something greedy about trying to enjoy the dinner and the concert at the same time.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.