John Edensor Littlewood Quotes
1885-06-09 – 1977-09-06
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Theyare not clever school boys or scholarship candidates, but
'Fellows of another college'.
1953 Of the ancient Greeks. A Mathematician's Miscellany. 
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More John Edensor Littlewood Quotes
It was Mr. Littlewood (I believe) who remarked that "every positive integer was one of his personal friends."
John Edensor Littlewood— (about Ramanujan) p. lvii of Hardy, G. H. (1921). "Obituary Notices: Srinivasa Ramanujan". Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society 19: xl-lviii. Retrieved on 2008-05-26.
A good mathematical joke is better, and better mathematics, than a dozen mediocre papers.
John Edensor Littlewood— "Introduction to A Mathematician's Miscellany", p. 24.
'The surprising thing about this paper is that a man who could write it--would.'
John Edensor Littlewood— Note quotation marks: Littlewood is repeating a joke without attribution. "Cross-purposes, Unconscious Assumptions, Howlers, Misprints, etc.", p. 59.
I read in the proof-sheets of Hardy on Ramanujan: 'As someone said, each of the positive integers was one of his personal friends.' My reaction was, 'I wonder who said that; I wish I had.' In the next proof-sheets I read (what now stands): 'It was Littlewood who said...' (What had happened was that Hardy had received the remark in silence and with a poker face, and I wrote it off as a dud....)
John Edensor Littlewood— "Cross-purposes, Unconscious Assumptions, Howlers, Misprints, etc.", p. 61.
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 it by now.
John Edensor Littlewood— "Academic Life", p. 135.
