戈弗雷·哈罗德·哈代

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.
我记得小时候我并不喜欢数学，在我身上也许有成为数学家的特质，但并不突出。我认为数学就是测验和奖学金：我希望击败其他的人，而用数学来做这件事是我最擅长的。

My eyes were first opened by Professor Love, who first taught me a few terms and gave me my first serious conception of analysis. But the great debt which I owe to him was his advice to read Jordan's "Cours d'analyse"; and I shall never forget the astonishment with which I read that remarkable work, the first inspiration for so many mathematicians of my generation, and learnt for the first time as I read it what mathematics really meant.
首先让我打开眼界的是乐甫教授。他首先教会了我一些数学用语，让我首次对分析学有了严谨的概念。然而他对我最大的恩惠是建议我读了若尔当的《分析学教程》。我永远无法忘记我阅读这本杰作时心中的震撼。这本书让我这一代的许多数学家获得了最初的激励，也让我头一次懂得了数学的真谛。

...[Hardy] wrote many papers on the convergence of series and integrals and allied topics. Although this work established his reputation as an analyst, his greatest service to mathematics in this early period was A course of pure mathematics (1908). This work was the first rigorous English exposition of number, function, limit, and so on, adapted to the undergraduate, and thus it transformed university teaching.
……（哈代）写了不少有关级数和积分收敛性的论文。这些文章让他建立了作为分析学家的地位。然而他早期学术生涯中最重要的数学贡献应该是1908年的《纯数学教程》。此书是国内首次将数论、函数、极限等概念以严谨的方式，用适于大学生的方式呈现的教材，深刻改变了大学教育。

I wrote a great deal... but very little of any importance; there are not more than four of five papers which I can still remember with some satisfaction.
我写了很多……但没有什么重要的东西。现在想起来，也就只有四到五篇文章能让我有些满意。

I was at my best at a little past forty, when I was a professor at Oxford.
刚过四十的时候，我的状态是最好的。那时我在牛津任教授。