John Littlewood

About John Littlewood

Family

Caroline Rhodesspouse

Notable quotes

“It was Mr. Littlewood (I believe) who remarked that "every positive integer was one of his personal friends."”
— About Ramanujan. Quoted in G. H. Hardy, "Obituary Notices: Srinivasa Ramanujan", Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, vol. 19 (1921) p. lvii
“The Greeks first spoke a language which modern mathematicians can understand; as Littlewood said to me once, they are not clever schoolboys or "scholarship candidates", but "Fellows of another college".”
— Quoted in G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician's Apology (1941) sec. 8
“A good mathematical joke is better, and better mathematics, than a dozen mediocre papers.”
— "Introduction to A Mathematician's Miscellany", p. 24.
“'The surprising thing about this paper is that a man who could write it--would.'”
— Note quotation marks: Littlewood is repeating a joke without attribution. "Cross-purposes, Unconscious Assumptions, Howlers, Misprints, etc.", p. 59.
“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...' (What had happened was that Hardy had received the remark in silence and with a poker face, and I wrote it off as a dud....)”
— "Cross-purposes, Unconscious Assumptions, Howlers, Misprints, etc.", p. 61.
“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.”
— "Academic Life", p. 135.

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.