Quote

I'm not the sort of person who does my mathematics writing on paper. I do that at the last stage of the game. I do my mathematics in my head. I sit down for a hard day's work and I write nothing all day. I just think. And I walk up and down because that helps keep me awake, it keeps the blood circulating, and I think and think.

Michael Atiyah

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Michael Atiyah
Age: 89 †
Born: 1929
Born: April 22
Died: 2019
Died: January 11
Mathematician
Topologist
University Teacher
London
England
Michael Francis Atiyah
Michael F. Atiyah
Sir Michael Francis Atiyah
Nothing
Lasts
Walk
Hard
Last
Walks
Writing
Write
Game
Circulating
Work
Helping
Blood
Awake
Think
Keep
Stage
Helps
Thinking
Doe
Head
Keeps
Persons
Sort
Mathematics
Person
Games
Paper

More quotes by Michael Atiyah

Image
If you attack a mathematical problem directly, very often you come to a dead end, nothing you do seems to work and you feel that if only you could peer round the corner there might be an easy solution. There is nothing like having somebody else beside you, because he can usually peer round the corner.
Michael Atiyah
Image
Any good theorem should have several proofs, the more the better.
Michael Atiyah
Image
There is no clear-cut distinction between example and theory
Michael Atiyah
Image
No one fully understands spinors. Their algebra is formally understood but their general significance is mysterious. In some sense they describe the 'square root' of geometry and, just as understanding the square root of -1 took centuries, the same might be true of spinors.
Michael Atiyah
Image
In the broad light of day mathematicians check their equations and their proofs, leaving no stone unturned in their search for rigour. But, at night, under the full moon, they dream, they float among the stars and wonder at the miracle of the heavens. They are inspired. Without dreams there is no art, no mathematics, no life.
Michael Atiyah
Image
The aim of mathematics is to explain as much as possible in simple terms.
Michael Atiyah
Image
Everything useful in mathematics has been devised for a purpose. Even if you don't know it, the guy who did it first, he knew what he was doing. Banach didn't just develop Banach spaces for the sake of it. He wanted to put many spaces under one heading. Without knowing the examples, the whole thing is pointless.
Michael Atiyah