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John Edensor Littlewood Inspirational Quotes (13)

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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.
John Edensor Littlewood
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The referee said it was not acceptable, but the Press considered they could not refuse to publish a book by a professor of the university.
John Edensor Littlewood
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The first lecture of each new year renews for most people a light stage fright.
John Edensor Littlewood
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I listen only to Bach, Beethoven or Mozart. Life is too short to waste on other composers.
John Edensor Littlewood
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Try a hard problem. You may not solve it, but you will prove something else.
John Edensor Littlewood
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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...
John Edensor Littlewood
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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.
John Edensor Littlewood
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It is possible for a mathematician to be too strong for a given occasion. He forces through, where another might be driven to a different, and possible more fruitful, approach. (So a rock climber might force a dreadful crack, instead of finding a subtle and delicate route.)
John Edensor Littlewood
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Mathematics is a dangerous profession an appreciable proportion of us go mad.
John Edensor Littlewood
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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.
John Edensor Littlewood
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The higher mental activities are pretty tough and resilient, but it is a devastating experience if the drive does stop. Some people lose it in their forties and can only stop. In England they are a source of Vice-Chancellors.
John Edensor Littlewood
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The first test of potential in mathematics is whether you can get anything out of geometry.
John Edensor Littlewood
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The infinitely competent can be uncreative.
John Edensor Littlewood