Paul Erdos Quotes

Paul Erdős's page shares witty, plain-spoken quips about mathematics and work, great for anyone who enjoys clever, coffee-fuelled humor.

39 quotes

1. Aliens invade the earth and threaten to obliterate it in a year's time unless human beings can find the Ramsey number for red five and blue five. We could marshal the world's best minds and fastest computers, and within a year we could probably calculate the value. If the aliens demanded the Ramsey number for red six and blue six, however, we would have no choice but to launch a preemptive attack.

2. A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems.

3. God may not play dice with the universe, but something strange is going on with the prime numbers.

4. This one's from the Book!

5. God has a Book where he maintains the best proofs of all mathematical theorems, proofs that are elegant and perfect... You don't have to believe in God, but you should believe in the Book.

6. Vegre nem butulok tovabb

7. I have no home, the world is my home.

8. Television is something the Russians invented to destroy American education.

9. My brain is open.

10. Another roof, another proof.

11. Let n be an integer.

12. I hope we'll be able to solve these problems before we leave. And when I say 'before we leave', I mean 'before we die'.

13. God is 'the Supreme Fascist.'

14. A Mathematician is someone who can take a cup of coffee and turn it into a theory.

15. Some French socialist said that private property was theft... I say that private property is a nuisance.

16. The SF [Supreme Fascist, i.e. God] created us to enjoy our suffering. The sooner we die, the sooner we defy His plans.

17. I'll tell you once, and I'll tell you again. There's always a prime between n and 2n.

18. When I was a child, the Earth was said to be two billion years old. Now scientists say it's four and a half billion. So that makes me two and a half billion.

19. It will be another million years, at least, before we understand the primes.

20. Here I am: My brain is open.

21. Végre nem butulok tovább (I've finally stopped getting dumber).

22. There'll be plenty of time to rest in the grave.

23. Mathematics is not yet ready for such problems.

24. There are three signs of senility. The first sign is that a man forgets his theorems. The second sign is that he forgets to zip up. The third sign is that he forgets to zip down.

25. If numbers aren't beautiful, I don't know what is.

26. Every human activity, good or bad, except mathematics, must come to an end.

27. God created two acts of folly. First, He created the Universe in a Big Bang. Second, He was negligent enough to leave behind evidence for this act, in the form of microwave radiation.

28. Finally I am becoming stupider no more.

29. The purpose of life is to conjecture and prove.

30. God has the Big Book, the beautiful proofs of mathematical theorems are listed here.

31. Mathematics is the surest way to immortality. If you make a big discovery in mathematics, you will be remembered after everyone else will be forgotten

32. “It is not enough to be in the right place at the right time. You should also have an open mind at the right time.”

33. “In a way, mathematics is the only infinite human activity. It is conceivable that humanity could eventually learn everything in physics or biology. But humanity certainly won't ever be able to find out everything in mathematics, because the subject is infinite. Numbers themselves are infinite. That's why mathematics is really my only interest.”

34. “[ When asked why are numbers beautiful ?] It’s like asking why is Ludwig van Beethoven ’s Ninth Symphony beautiful. If you don't see why, someone can't tell you. I know numbers are beautiful. If they aren't beautiful, nothing is.”

35. “When he said someone had 'died', Erdős meant that that the person had stopped doing mathematics. When he said someone had 'left', the person had died.”

36. “Before, when I looked at a piece of blank paper my mind was filled with ideas. Now all I see is a blank piece of paper”

37. “I know numbers are beautiful. If they aren't beautiful, nothing is.”

38. “I am not qualified to say whether or not God exists. I kind of doubt He does. Nevertheless I'm always saying that the SF( The SF is the supreme Fascist, the Number-One guy up there) has this transfinite book-transfinite being a concept in mathematics that is larger than infinite-that contains the best proofs of all mathematical theorems, proofs that are elegant and perfect.”

39. Property is a nuisance.