Bombs Are Probably More Merciful

A Mathematician, Like A Painter Or A Poet, Is A Maker Of Patterns.

The "seriousness" Of A Mathematical Theorem Lies, Not In Its Practical Consequences, Which Are Usually Negligible, But In The Significance Of The Mathematical Ideas Which It Connects.

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.

Pure Mathematics Is On The Whole Distinctly More Useful Than Applied... For What Is Useful Above All Is Technique, And Mathematical Technique Is Taught Mainly Through Pure Mathematics.

It Is Hardly Possible To Maintain Seriously That The Evil Done By Science Is Not Altogether Outweighed By The Good. For Example, If Ten Million Lives Were Lost In Every War, The Net Effect Of Science Would Still Have Been To Increase The Average Length Of Life.