It is rather astonishing how little practical value scientific knowledge has for ordinary men, how dull and commonplace such of it as has value is, and how its value seems almost to vary inversely to its reputed utility.

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

It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that.

Mathematics is not a contemplative but a creative subject.

A chess problem is simply an exercise in pure mathematics.

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

I do not remember having felt, as a boy, any passion for mathematics, and such notions as I may have had of the career of a mathematician were far from noble. I thought of mathematics in terms of examinations and scholarships: I wanted to beat other boys, and this seemed to be the way in which I could do so most decisively.