Thumbnail of Srinivasa Ramanujan
Srinivasa Ramanujan
(22 Dec 1887 - 26 Apr 1920)

Indian mathematician who, displayed a natural ability in mathematics at an early age. His talent was recognized by G. N. Hardy, who arranged for him to be a student at Cambridge University. In the following few years, before an early death at age 32, Ramanujan's work produced an exceptional output in mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series and continued fractions.


Science Quotes by Srinivasa Ramanujan (1)

An equation means nothing to me unless it expresses a thought of God.
— Srinivasa Ramanujan
Quoted in Clifford A. Pickover, A Passion for Mathematics (2005), 1; but with no footnote to primary source.
See also:  |  Equation (24)  |  Express (4)  |  God (121)  |  Meaning (11)  |  Nothing (11)  |  Thought (65)



Quotes by others about Srinivasa Ramanujan (2)

I remember once going to see him when he was lying ill at Putney. I had ridden in taxi cab number 1729 and remarked that the number seemed to me rather a dull one, and that I hoped it was not an unfavorable omen. 'No,' he replied, 'it is a very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways.'
Quoted in G.H. Hardy, Ramanujan; twelve lectures on subjects suggested by his life and work (1940, reprint 1999), 12.
See also:  |  Cube (2)  |  Number (45)

No mathematician should ever allow him to forget that mathematics, more than any other art or science, is a young man's game. … Galois died at twenty-one, Abel at twenty-seven, Ramanujan at thirty-three, Riemann at forty. There have been men who have done great work later; ... [but] I do not know of a single instance of a major mathematical advance initiated by a man past fifty. ... A mathematician may still be competent enough at sixty, but it is useless to expect him to have original ideas.
In A Mathematician's Apology (1941, reprint with Foreward by C.P. Snow 1992), 70-71.
See also:  |  Niels Henrik Abel (9)  |  Mathematician (66)  |  Youth (13)


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