The theory of numbers is particularly liable to the accusation that some of its problems are the wrong sort of questions to ask. I do not myself think the danger is serious; either a reasonable amount of concentration leads to new ideas or methods of obvious interest, or else one just leaves the problem alone. "Perfect numbers" certainly never did any good, but then they never did any particular harm.
I listen only to Bach, Beethoven or Mozart. Life is too short to waste on other composers. - John Edensor Littlewood
I listen only to Bach, Beethoven or Mozart. Life is too short to waste on other composers.
- John Edensor Littlewood
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, … - John Edensor Littlewood
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, …
The infinitely competent can be uncreative. - John Edensor Littlewood
The infinitely competent can be uncreative.
The first test of potential in mathematics is whether you can get anything out of geometry. - John Edensor Littlewood
The first test of potential in mathematics is whether you can get anything out of geometry.
Try a hard problem. You may not solve it, but you will prove something else. - John Edensor Littlewood
Try a hard problem. You may not solve it, but you will prove something else.
In passing, I firmly believe that research should be offset by a certain amount of teaching, if only as a change from the agony of research. The trou… - John Edensor Littlewood
In passing, I firmly believe that research should be offset by a certain amount of teaching, if only as a change from the agony of research. The trou…
It is true that I should have been surprised in the past to learn that Professor Hardy had joined the Oxford Group. But one could not say the adverse… - John Edensor Littlewood
It is true that I should have been surprised in the past to learn that Professor Hardy had joined the Oxford Group. But one could not say the adverse…
I constantly meet people who are doubtful, generally without due reason, about their potential capacity [as mathematicians]. The first test is whethe… - John Edensor Littlewood
I constantly meet people who are doubtful, generally without due reason, about their potential capacity [as mathematicians]. The first test is whethe…
A good mathematical joke is better, and better mathematics, than a dozen mediocre papers. - John Edensor Littlewood
A good mathematical joke is better, and better mathematics, than a dozen mediocre papers.
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