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.
G. H. HardyAs history proves abundantly, mathematical achievement, whatever its intrinsic worth, is the most enduring of all.
G. H. HardyThere is no scorn more profound, or on the whole more justifiable, than that of the men who make for the men who explain.
G. H. Hardy