Present Joys

“We thank the Lord of heaven and earth
who hath preserved us from our birth
for present joys, for blessings past,
and for the hope of heaven at last.”
A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns. And just as in poetry and painting, the mathematician’s patterns must be beautiful. Beauty is the first test. There is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics.
G.H. Hardy