G. H. Hardy

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1. 01

   A true mathematician does math mostly for its beauty, the way a painter paints for the beauty of the picture, not only for usefulness.

   A Mathematician's Apology · 1940

   Pure mathematics is the pursuit of beauty, not immediate utility

   Hardy said the most beautiful theorems are like elegant chess moves: surprising, simple, and tightly connected. He preferred pure math with no immediate use, precisely for that purity. Ironically, many ideas he thought useless, like number theory, are today the foundation of internet cryptography and online security.

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