Bent Petersen June 1998
We do not live and eat to make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. Some of us know that by doing mathematics we can get some of the finest enjoyment there is to be had. The mathematics has lifted us, just for one precious moment, high above our ordinary life and shown us the beauty, power and purity we should never have known if we had not faced it squarely.
Brigadier General the Hon C. G. Bruce was part of the (failed) Everest expedition of 1922. You can read about that expedition in:
Richard Robinson, ed., Travellers in Time, Seven Epic Stories of Early Exploration, Macdonald Queen Anne Press, London 1986.
As you have probably guessed by now, Bruce was not writing about Mathematics. His words apply well to so many creative and challenging activities however.
Last updated Thursday, April 10, 2003 11:28 PM