Paul Erdős

"I think that, as , a very clever young Israeli mathematician, once said, "I am an opportunist. I do what I can do." If there is anything in number theory that I can do, I certainly do it. But you see some of the problems in number theory are enormously difficult and many of these classic problems are very, very hard to make any progress in."

"Paul Erdős is the consummate problem solver: his hallmark is the succinct and clever argument, often leading to a solution from "the book". He loves areas of mathematics which do not require an excessive amount of technical knowledge but give scope for ingenuity and surprise. The mathematics of Paul Erdős is the mathematics of beauty and insight."

"As a mathematician Erdös is what in other fields is called a "natural". If a problem can be stated in terms he can understand, though it may belong to a field with which he is not familiar, he is as likely as, or even more likely than, the experts to find a solution."

"A conjecture both deep and profound Is whether a circle is round. In a paper of Erdős Written in Kurdish A counterexample is found."

"Paul Erdős (1913–1996) was once told that a friend of his had shot and killed his wife. Without blinking an eye, Erdős said, "Well, she was probably interrupting him when he was trying to prove a theorem."

"If numbers arent beautiful, I dont know what is."

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

"Probably the greatest mathematician of the twentieth century, Paul Erdős … was so eccentric that he made Einstein look normal. He was 11 before he ever tied his shoes, 21 before he ever buttered toast, and died without ever boiling an egg. Erdős lived on the road, traveling from conference to conference, owning nothing but math notebooks and a suitcase or two. His life consisted of math, nothing else."

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

"He was an absolutely wonderful man. He was interested in everything. You felt right away that you are not dealing with one of your colleagues or an average guy. He was a genius, his thoughts were all over the place. Ive met very smart people. I have never met a genius before. … He basically disregarded any disciplined approach to anything."

"One of my greatest regrets is that I didnt know him when he was a million times faster than most people. When I knew him he was only hundreds of times faster."

"Suppose aliens invade the earth and threaten to obliterate it in a years time unless human beings can find the Ramsey number for red five and blue five. We could marshal the worlds 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."