Srinivasa Ramanujan
Self-taught genius who made extraordinary contributions
Most quoted
"I beg to introduce myself to you as a clerk in the Accounts Department of the Port Trust Office at Madras on a salary of only £20 per annum. I am now about 23 years of age. I have had no University education but I have undergone the ordinary school course. After leaving school I have been employing the spare time at my disposal to work at Mathematics. I have not trodden through the conventional regular course which is followed in a University course, but I am striking out a new path for myself. I have made a special investigation of divergent series in general and the results I get are termed by the local mathematicians as 'startling'."
— from First letter to G.H. Hardy, 1913
"I beg to introduce myself to you as a clerk in the Accounts Department of the Port Trust Office at Madras on a salary of only £20 per annum. I am now about 23 years of age. I have had no University education but I have undergone the ordinary school course. After leaving school I have been employing the spare time at my disposal to work at Mathematics."
— from Letter to G.H. Hardy, 1913
"I remember once going to see him when he was 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 unfavourable 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.'"
— from Recounted by G.H. Hardy, 1918
All quotes by Srinivasa Ramanujan (688)
An equation has no meaning for me unless it expresses a thought of God.
To preserve my brains, I must have food and to get food, I must work.
I have found a friend in you who will understand my language of mathematics.
I can write down many more such results. The papers of mine are not yet published. I am a poor man. If you are convinced that there is anything of value in my work, I shall be glad to publish my results. I have not given the proofs of the theorems, but I have given the results. I hope you will be able to understand them.
I have had a dream. I was working out an integral and the integral was of a very complicated form. I was trying to solve it and I could not. Then I saw a goddess, and she told me the answer. I woke up and wrote it down.
The number 1729 is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways.
It is a very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways.
I am not a mathematician, I am a mystic.
While asleep, I had an unusual experience. There was a red screen formed by flowing blood, as it were. I was observing it. Suddenly a hand began to write on the screen. I became all attention. That hand wrote a number of elliptic integrals. They stuck to my mind. As soon as I woke up, I committed them to writing.
I have been trying to find a formula for the number of partitions of n. I have found one, but it is very complicated.
I have discovered some new results in the theory of numbers, which I hope will be of interest to you.
I am very grateful to you for your kindness and for your interest in my work.
I have been ill for some time, but I am now recovering.
I hope to be able to return to India soon.
I have found a new method of finding the sum of certain series.
I have no proofs, but I have the results.
I am sending you some of my results, and I hope you will find them interesting.
I have been working on the theory of partitions, and I have found some new results.
I am very grateful for your help and encouragement.
I hope to be able to continue my work in mathematics.
Contemporaries of Srinivasa Ramanujan
Other Mathematicss born within 50 years of Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920).