Quotes by John Edensor Littlewood

John Edensor Littlewood

A good mathematical joke is better, and better mathematics, than a dozen mediocre papers.

Math

Mediocrity

Paper

A heavy warning used to be given that pictures are not rigorous; this has never had its bluff called and has permanently frightened its victims into playing for safety.

Mathematics

Safety

Warning

A linguist would be shocked to learn that if a set is not closed this does not mean that it is open, or again that “E is dense in E” does not mean the same thing as “E is dense in itself”.

Learning

Math

Mean

A Miscellany is a collection without a natual ordering relation.

Mathematics

Miscellany

Relation

A precisian professor had the habit of saying: “… quartic polynomial ax^4+bx^3+cx^2+dx+e , where e need not be the base of the natural logarithms.”

Habit

Math

Needs

Before creation, God did just pure mathematics. Then He thought it would be a pleasant change to do some applied.

Creation

Mathematics

Would Be

I constantly meet people who are doubtful, generally without due reason, about their potential capacity [as mathematicians]. The first test is whether you got anything out of geometry. To have disliked or failed to get on with other [mathematical] subjects need mean nothing; much drill and drudgery is unavoidable before they can get started, and bad teaching can make them unintelligible even to a born mathematician.

Failure

Mean

Teaching

I listen only to Bach, Beethoven or Mozart. Life is too short to waste on other composers.

Composer

Life Is Too Short

Waste

I read in the proof sheets of Hardy on Ramanujan: “As someone said, each of the positive integers was one of his personal friends.” My reaction was, “I wonder who said that; I wish I had.” In the next proof-sheets I read (what now stands), “It was Littlewood who said…”

Friendship

Math

Wish

I recall once saying that when I had given the same lecture several times I couldn’t help feeling that they really ought to know it by now.

Feelings

Lectures

Math

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Add

Believe

Book

Change

Class

Composer

Creation

Different

Doe

Failure

Feelings

Firsts

Friendship

Giving

Habit

Learning

Lectures

Life Is Too Short

Light

Mad

Math

Mathematical

Mathematics

May

Mean

Mediocrity

Miscellany

Needs

New Year

Numbers

Paper

Past

People

Problem

Professors

Proportion

Real

Relation

Rocks

Running

Safety

Said

School

Science

Strong

Teaching

Tests

Thinking

Trying

Two

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Quotes by John Edensor Littlewood

John Edensor Littlewood

A good mathematical joke is better, and better mathematics, than a dozen mediocre papers.

A heavy warning used to be given that pictures are not rigorous; this has never had its bluff called and has permanently frightened its victims into playing for safety.

A linguist would be shocked to learn that if a set is not closed this does not mean that it is open, or again that “E is dense in E” does not mean the same thing as “E is dense in itself”.

A Miscellany is a collection without a natual ordering relation.

A precisian professor had the habit of saying: “… quartic polynomial ax^4+bx^3+cx^2+dx+e , where e need not be the base of the natural logarithms.”

Before creation, God did just pure mathematics. Then He thought it would be a pleasant change to do some applied.

I listen only to Bach, Beethoven or Mozart. Life is too short to waste on other composers.

I read in the proof sheets of Hardy on Ramanujan: “As someone said, each of the positive integers was one of his personal friends.” My reaction was, “I wonder who said that; I wish I had.” In the next proof-sheets I read (what now stands), “It was Littlewood who said…”

I recall once saying that when I had given the same lecture several times I couldn’t help feeling that they really ought to know it by now.

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