The surprising thing about this paper is that a man who could write it would. — John Edensor Littlewood Copy Share Image
In presenting a mathematical argument the great thing is to give the educated reader the chance to catch on at once to the momentary… — John Edensor Littlewood Copy Share
A good mathematical joke is better, and better mathematics, than a dozen mediocre papers. — John Edensor Littlewood Copy Share
Mathematics is a dangerous profession; an appreciable proportion of us go mad. — John Edensor Littlewood Copy Share
The first test of potential in mathematics is whether you can get anything out of geometry. — John Edensor Littlewood Copy Share
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 Copy Share
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… — John Edensor Littlewood Copy Share
The theory of numbers is particularly liable to the accusation that some of its problems are the wrong sort of questions to ask. I… — John Edensor Littlewood Copy Share
The higher mental activities are pretty tough and resilient, but it is a devastating experience if the drive does stop. Some people lose it… — John Edensor Littlewood Copy Share
The referee said it was not acceptable, but the Press considered they could not refuse to publish a book by a professor of the… — John Edensor Littlewood Copy Share
I constantly meet people who are doubtful, generally without due reason, about their potential capacity [as mathematicians]. The first test is whether you got… — John Edensor Littlewood Copy Share
I read in the proof sheets of Hardy on Ramanujan: "As someone said, each of the positive integers was one of his personal friends."… — John Edensor Littlewood Copy Share
The surprising thing about this paper is that a man who could write it would. — John Edensor Littlewood Copy Share
A linguist would be shocked to learn that if a set is not closed this does not mean that it is open, or again… — John Edensor Littlewood Copy Share
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 Copy Share
It is true that I should have been surprised in the past to learn that Professor Hardy had joined the Oxford Group. But one… — John Edensor Littlewood Copy Share
