Where are fertile hunting grounds for classics? Obviously, literature. Ben Jonson wrote of Shakespeare, “He was not of an age, but for all time!” Mathematics, however, is far more fertile. For instance, G. H. Hardy called the proofs of two theorems classics—the standard proof that the square root of minus one is irrational, and Euclid’s proof that there exist infinitely many primes:
They are “simple” theorems, simple both in idea and in execution, but there is no doubt at all about their being theorems of the highest class. Each is as fresh and significant as when it was discovered—two thousand years have not written a wrinkle on either of them.
I like classics because practically everything around me is temporary. A classic is to time as a compass is to space. Without classics we’d be lost.
(G. H. Hardy as quoted from page 92 of his book A Mathematician’s Apology, Cambridge University Press, 1992; originally published 1940.)
For a brief biography of G. H. Hardy, click here. For images of or relating to G. H. Hardy, click here.
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