‘It is a tiny minority who can do anything really well, and the number of men who can do two things well is negligible. If a man has any genuine talent, he should be ready to make almost any sacrifice in order to cultivate it to the full.’
A Mathematician’s Apology is an essay by G. H. Hardy defending the pursuit of mathematics regardless of whether it is “useful” in the practical sense. Hardy believed the “beauty” of mathematics made the subject different from other sciences and gave mathematics a special value worth pursuing in itself. The essay eventually became quite famous among the general public for giving insights into the mind of a mathematician.
Godfrey Harold Hardy, commonly known as G. H. Hardy, was a leading British mathematician whose work focused on number theory and mathematical analysis. He was also famous for his collaborations with John Edensor Littlewood and Srinivasa Ramanujan.