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.
You should be dynamic, and still be soft in the heart. _x000D_ You should stand against injustice and simultaneously, be compassionate within you, like a saint. _x000D_ Be a saint and a soldier, together
Diligence is a good thing, but taking things easy is much more restful.
We learn best to listen to our own voices if we are listening at the same time to other women-whose stories, for all our differences, turn out, if we listen well, to be our stories also.
The 'tide in the affairs of men' does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: 'Too late...'
Giap was a master of logistics, but his reputation rests on more than that. His victories were achieved by a patient strategy that he and Ho Chi Minh were convinced would succeed - an unwavering resolve to suffer immense casualties and the near total destruction of their country to defeat any adversary, no matter how powerful.
I'm grateful that, after an early life of being silenced, sometimes violently, I grew up to have a voice, circumstances that will always bind me to the rights of the voiceless.
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