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 to know it by now."

"To illustrate to what extent Hardy and Littlewood in the course of the years came to be considered as the leaders of recent English mathematical research, I may report what an excellent colleague once…"

"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…"

"It was Mr. Littlewood who remarked that "every positive integer was one of his personal friends."

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

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