“A character so remarkably free from the petty meannesses of human life … the most generous of men.” That’s what C. P. Snow once said of Hardy. Another time, he called him “freer from the emotion [of envy] than any man I have ever known.” Indeed, though Hardy deemed Ramanujan’s natural mathematical ability superior to his own, no hint survives of so much as a wisp of envy tainting his relationship with him.
