S. Chandrasekhar on the motives for his style of work.

Chandrasekhar:

On the other hand, if you ask me, "Why have I practiced it myself?" Let me illustrate it in a different way. You have read Hardy's APOLOGY OF A MATHEMATICIAN? It's a marvelous little book. There's a reference in the end to a conversation which Hardy had with a friend of his, going by the Nelson/Column in Trafalgar Square. "If I had a statue on a column in London, would I prefer the column to be so high that the statue was invisible or low enough for the features to be recognizable? I would choose the first alternative."

The same motive works in science. I think one of the motives of science is to leave some kind of memorial behind oneself. And people can do that in a variety of ways. They can make discoveries and be remembered for that. But there is also a more modest role a scientist can play, and that is to assemble information and material which, in the long run, will be helpful to others, and be of some permanent value — permanent in a relative sense.

I have chosen the later approach. All, I think, as a consequence of my first shattering experience in Cambridge. The idea that one's scientific life has to be motivated by the off-chance that one may make a great discovery, and be remembered for that, was too risky, too much of a gamble. I preferred the more modest approach of trying to do something— and I think, on the whole, it has worked to my advantage. Because if one is not stupid, then in the course of such effort you are bound to find a few things which people might even count as important discoveries. But the main emphasis in your life is to concentrate on producing as permanent a body of knowledge as you are capable of.