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)
Hardy, you don't understand; the number speaks to me.
Poverty forced me to work as a clerk, but mathematics was my true calling.
The Ramanujan theta function is a generalization of the Jacobi theta functions.
I am glad to have met you, Professor Hardy; together we can explore the infinite.
Life is short, but mathematics is eternal.
My wife, Janaki, is my greatest support in this journey.
The mock theta functions were revealed to me in a dream.
1729 is not dull; it has a story of two cubes.
I do not claim to have a thorough mathematical training, but I have intuition.
The sum of two cubes in two ways: that's the magic of 1729.
God gives me these insights; I merely record them.
In India, I was unknown; in England, I found recognition.
Elliptic integrals are the poetry of mathematics.
I worked day and night on these problems, forgetting food and sleep.
The Hardy-Ramanujan number is 1729, a taxicab number.
My health is failing, but my mind is sharp as ever.
Continued fractions converge to the truth slowly but surely.
I am a humble servant of mathematics.
The divine mother inspires my calculations.
Littlewood and Hardy, you are my guides in this land.
Contemporaries of Srinivasa Ramanujan
Other Mathematicss born within 50 years of Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920).