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 am only a medium through which God expresses his thoughts.
My theorems are not just formulas, they are expressions of God's thoughts.
Mathematics is the language in which God has written the universe.
Every integer is a personal friend of mine.
The infinite is always present in my mind.
I have no doubt that the results I have obtained are true, because they are from God.
The beauty of mathematics lies in its simplicity and universality.
I am not afraid of death, for I know that my work will live on.
My life is a testament to the power of intuition and divine inspiration.
The human mind is capable of understanding the deepest mysteries of the universe.
Truth is not something that can be proven, but something that is revealed.
The meaning of life is to seek knowledge and to understand the divine.
Mathematics is the highest form of poetry.
I see God in every number.
The universe is a vast mathematical equation waiting to be solved.
My mind is a temple where God resides.
The pursuit of knowledge is the noblest endeavor of mankind.
There is no end to the beauty and wonder of numbers.
My life's purpose is to unravel the secrets of the universe through mathematics.
The greatest joy is to discover a new truth.
Contemporaries of Srinivasa Ramanujan
Other Mathematicss born within 50 years of Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920).