I Am Coming More And More To

[on Sophie Germain] When A Person Of The Sex Which, According To Our Customs And Prejudices, Must Encounter Infinitely More Difficulties Than Men... Succeeds Nevertheless In Surmounting These Obstacles And Penetrating The Most Obscure Parts Of [number Theory], Then Without Doubt She Must Have The Noblest Courage, Quite Extraordinary Talents And Superior Genius.

To The Distracting Occupations Belong Especially My Lecture Courses Which I Am Holding This Winter For The First Time, And Which Now Cost Much More Of My Time Than I Like. Meanwhile I Hope That The Second Time This Expenditure Of Time Will Be Much Less, Otherwise I Would Never Be Able To Reconcile Myself To It, Even Practical (astronomical) Work Must Give Far More Satisfaction Than If One Brings Up To B A Couple More Mediocre Heads Which Otherwise Would Have Stopped At A.

To Such Idle Talk It Might Further Be Added: That Whenever A Certain Exclusive Occupation Is Coupled With Specific Shortcomings, It Is Likewise Almost Certainly Divorced From Certain Other Shortcomings.

Life Stands Before Me Like An Eternal Spring With New And Brilliant Clothes.

The Problem Of Distinguishing Prime Numbers From Composite Numbers And Of Resolving The Latter Into Their Prime Factors Is Known To Be One Of The Most Important And Useful In Arithmetic.