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)
I have not trodden through the conventional regular route of studying, but I am striking out a new path, merely following the pangs of my inner feelings.
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. It was writing equations, and they were all of the forms I had never seen before.
The Goddess Namagiri would write the equations on my tongue.
Every positive integer is one of my best friends.
I would not have achieved what I have without the help of Professor Hardy.
Mathematics is the only thing that I can do without effort.
In my dreams, I see numbers dancing.
The infinite is where God lives.
I beg to introduce myself to you as a clerk in the Accountant General's Office of Madras.
I have developed some new and interesting functions which I am sending to you.
These results, practically all of them, are obtained by me by a single method which I have developed.
I am extremely thankful to you for your kind interest in my work.
The theory of convergent series is simpler than that of continued fractions.
The continued fraction for (1 - 1/n)^{-1/n} is remarkable.
I owe a lot to my country for giving me the opportunity to pursue mathematics.
Numbers are like people; each has its own personality.
God is in the details of every formula.
My methods are intuitive, but they lead to truth.
The partition function p(n) grows like exp(pi sqrt(2n/3))/(4n sqrt(3)).
I see the formulas as visions from the divine.
Contemporaries of Srinivasa Ramanujan
Other Mathematicss born within 50 years of Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920).