Quote

In one word he told me the secret of success in mathematics: plagiarize only be sure always to call it . . . research.

Tom Lehrer

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Tom Lehrer
Age: 96
Born: 1928
Born: April 9
Lyricist
Mathematician
Pianist
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
University Teacher
New York City
New York
Thomas Andrew Lehrer
Thomas Lehrer
Always
Mathematics
Research
Told
Secret
Call
Sure
Word
Success
Plagiarize

More quotes by Tom Lehrer

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The audience usually has to be with you, I'm afraid. I always regarded myself as not even preaching to the converted, I was titillating the converted.
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Don't write naughty words on the wall if you can't spell!
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I went from adolescence to senility, trying to bypass maturity.
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If the hoods don't get you, the monoxide will.
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Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air!
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Alas, irreverence has been subsumed by mere grossness, at least in the so-called mass media. What we have now - to quote myself at my most pretentious - is a nimiety of scurrility with a concomitant exiguity of taste.
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And although I'm all for freedom of expression and against censorship, there are certain things I'm not willing to go to jail for.
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But in the new (math) approach, the important thing is to understand what you're doing, rather than to get the right answer.
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Some of you may have met mathematicians and wondered how they got that way.
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So long, Mom I'm off to drop the bomb So don't wait up for me But while you swelter Down there in your shelter You can see me On your TV
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To me, being funny is more important than making a point, but I don't know. Most politicians are so interested in making points that they don't ... I'd rather be funny myself, and I'd rather listen to somebody with a little sense of humor.
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I've heard it quoted that I was dead. You can't believe anything you read. That was just an off-hand remark somebody picked up, and now it's been quoted and quoted, and therefore misquoted.
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And we will all go together when we go. What a comforting fact that is to know. Universal bereavement, An inspiring achievement, Yes, we will all go together when we go.
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In my youth there were words you couldn't say in front of a girl now you can't say 'girl.'
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Once all the Germans were warlike and mean But that couldn't happen again We taught them a lesson in nineteen eighteen And they've hardly bothered us since then
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I would do nightclubs and concerts - particularly concerts, which is mostly what I did - and only people who already agreed with me would show up. People weren't going to come and inadvertently turn on their television set and find this offensive stuff coming out.
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You can raise welts like nobody else, as we dance to the Masochism Tango.
Tom Lehrer
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If I can't get people to commit themselves on whether or not there is a square root of two, then I won't touch on God or anything here
Tom Lehrer
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I know that there are people who do not love their fellow man, and I hate people like that!
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Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down ? That's not my department.
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