John Edensor Littlewood

A Miscellany is a collection without a natual ordering relation.

— John Edensor Littlewood

The first lecture of each new year renews for most people a light stage fright.

— John Edensor Littlewood

The infinitely competent can be uncreative.

— John Edensor Littlewood

Mathematics is a dangerous profession; an appreciable proportion of us go mad.

— John Edensor Littlewood

Try a hard problem. You may not solve it, but you will prove something else.

— John Edensor Littlewood

The surprising thing about this paper is that a man who could write it would.

— John Edensor Littlewood

The first test of potential in mathematics is whether you can get anything out of geometry.

— John Edensor Littlewood

I've been giving this lecture to first-year classes for over twenty-five years. You'd think they would begin to understand it by now.

— John Edensor Littlewood

The referee said it was not acceptable, but the Press considered they could not refuse to publish a book by a professor…

— John Edensor Littlewood

I recall once saying that when I had given the same lecture several times I couldn't help feeling that they really ought…

— John Edensor Littlewood

Before creation, God did just pure mathematics. Then He thought it would be a pleasant change to do some applied.

— John Edensor Littlewood

I listen only to Bach, Beethoven or Mozart. Life is too short to waste on other composers.

— John Edensor Littlewood

A good mathematical joke is better, and better mathematics, than a dozen mediocre papers.

— John Edensor Littlewood

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…

— 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.…

— 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…

— 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…

— John Edensor Littlewood

A linguist would be shocked to learn that if a set is not closed this does not mean that it is open,…

— John Edensor Littlewood

The higher mental activities are pretty tough and resilient, but it is a devastating experience if the drive does stop. Some people…

— John Edensor Littlewood

It is possible for a mathematician to be "too strong" for a given occasion. He forces through, where another might be driven…

— John Edensor Littlewood

In presenting a mathematical argument the great thing is to give the educated reader the chance to catch on at once to…

— John Edensor Littlewood

I constantly meet people who are doubtful, generally without due reason, about their potential capacity [as mathematicians]. The first test is whether…

— John Edensor Littlewood

We come finally, however, to the relation of the ideal theory to real world, or "real" probability. If he is consistent a…

— John Edensor Littlewood

The theory of numbers is particularly liable to the accusation that some of its problems are the wrong sort of questions to…

— John Edensor Littlewood

A heavy warning used to be given that pictures are not rigorous; this has never had its bluff called and has permanently…

— John Edensor Littlewood