If a man is in any sense a real mathematician, then it is a hundred to one that his mathematics will be far better than anything else he can do, and that he would be silly if he surrendered any decent opportunity of exercising his one talent in order to do undistinguished work in other fields. Such a sacrifice could be justified only by economic necessity of age.

The case for my life... is this: that I have added something to knowledge, and helped others to add more

A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns.

The public does not need to be convinced that there is something in mathematics.

Sometimes one has to say difficult things, but one ought to say them as simply as one knows how.

Bombs are probably more merciful than bayonets

If a man is in any sense a real mathematician, then it is a hundred to one that his mathematics will be far better than anything else he can do, and that he would be silly if he surrendered any decent opportunity of exercising his one talent in order to do undistinguished work in other fields. Such a sacrifice could be justified only by economic necessity of age.