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 hope that you will be able to appreciate the beauty of my work.
I am only a tool in the hands of God.
I have no education, but I have intuition.
I have discovered many things which are not yet known to the world.
I am a vegetarian, but I eat meat for my health.
I am very grateful for the opportunity to work with you.
I hope to return to India soon.
I am very ill, but I am still working on my mathematics.
I have found a new way to solve the problem.
I am not afraid of death, but I want to finish my work.
I am very happy to be a Fellow of the Royal Society.
I have no doubt that I will recover.
I am always thinking about mathematics.
I have many more things to discover.
I am very grateful for your kindness.
I hope that my work will be useful to future generations.
I am not interested in fame, but in truth.
I have a strong belief in God.
I am a simple man, but I have a great passion for mathematics.
I am very happy to be in England.
Contemporaries of Srinivasa Ramanujan
Other Mathematicss born within 50 years of Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920).