"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 jokingly said: 'Nowadays, there are only three really great English mathematicians: Hardy, Littlewood, and Hardy-Littlewood.'"

John Edensor Littlewood Mathematics See all quotes by John Edensor Littlewood →

React to this quote

More by John Edensor Littlewood

“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.'”

“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.”

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

“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 : 'It was Littlewood who said...'”

Resonant Thoughts

"I wanted to write joyful music that made other people feel good. That’s what I tried to do for the past 27 years."

— Brian Wilson

Music1943–2025

#time

"I've worked with a lot of living composers recently. It drives me nuts, though, that they like to change things at the last minute. For example, two years ago I played a piece that had been completed …"

— Sarah Chang

Music1980

#time

"Taupe? What sort of colour is "taupe"? It sounds like a Malaysian ground sloth encountered once every fifty years by one of the Attenboroughs wearing long socks."

— Peter Greenaway

Art1942

#time

"I really, really do believe it. I just want you to know, I think this is obvious, but I'm not really going in for the warm fuzzy feeling thing, I'm not a hippy, I do not have flowers in my hair, I com…"

— Bono

Music1960–2021

#knowledge