“Reductio ad absurdum, which Euclid loved so much, is one of a mathematician's finest weapons. It is a far finer gambit than any chess play: a chess player may offer the sacrifice of a pawn or even a piece, but a mathematician offers the game.”

— G. H. Hardy , book A Mathematician's Apology

A Mathematician's Apology (1941)

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G. H. Hardy 20

British mathematician 1877–1947

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