It is true that I should have been surprised in the past to learn that Professor Hardy had joined the Oxford Group. But one could not say the adverse chance was 1:10. Mathematics is a dangerous profession; an appreciable proportion of us go mad, and then this particular event would be quite likely.
John Edensor LittlewoodIt is true that I should have been surprised in the past to learn that Professor Hardy had joined the Oxford Group. But one could not say the adverse chance was 1:10. Mathematics is a dangerous profession; an appreciable proportion of us go mad, and then this particular event would be quite likely.
John Edensor LittlewoodA 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 LittlewoodI listen only to Bach, Beethoven or Mozart. Life is too short to waste on other composers.
John Edensor LittlewoodI'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 LittlewoodMathematics is a dangerous profession; an appreciable proportion of us go mad.
John Edensor LittlewoodIt 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