Erdos Quotes & Sayings

Why are numbers beautiful? It's like asking why is 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. — Paul Erdos

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. — Paul Erdos

Paul Erdos has a theory that God has a book containing all the theorems of mathematics with their absolutely most beautiful proofs, and when he wants to express particular appreciation of a proof he exclaims, "This is from the book!" — Ross Honsberger

God has the Big Book, the beautiful proofs of mathematical theorems are listed here. — Paul Erdos

Finally I'm becoming stupider no more. — Paul Erdos

Some French socialist said that private property was theft ... I say that private property is a nuisance. — Paul Erdos

You don't have to believe in God, but you should believe in The Book. — Paul Erdos

A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems — Paul Erdos

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

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

This unique and deep meaning of power laws perhaps explains our excitement when we first spotted them on the Web. It wasn't only that they were unprecedented and unexpected in the context of networks. It was that they lifted complex networks out of the jungle of randomness where Erdos and Renyi had placed them forty years earlier and dropped them into the center of the colorful and conceptually rich arena of self-organization. Gazing at the power laws that our little search engine carried home from its journey, we caught a glimpse of a new and unsuspected order within networks, one that displayed an uncommon beauty and coherence. — Albert-Laszlo Barabasi

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. — Paul Erdos

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

Property is a nuisance. — Paul Erdos

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. — Paul Erdos

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 — Paul Erdos

The purpose of life is to conjecture and prove. — Paul Erdos

If numbers aren't beautiful, I don't know what is. — Paul Erdos

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. — Paul Erdos

Another roof, another proof. — Paul Erdos

I hope we'll be able to solve these problems before we leave. — Paul Erdos

Suppose 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. — Paul Erdos

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. — Paul Erdos

There is an old debate," Erdos liked to say, "about whether you create mathematics or just discover it. In other words, are the truths already there, even if we don't yet know them?" Erdos had a clear answer to this question: Mathematical truths are there among the list of absolute truths, and we just rediscover them. Random graph theory, so elegant and simple, seemed to him to belong to the eternal truths. Yet today we know that random networks played little role in assembling our universe. Instead, nature resorted to a few fundamental laws, which will be revealed in the coming chapters. Erdos himself created mathematical truths and an alternative view of our world by developing random graph theory. Not privy to nature's laws in creating the brain and society, Erdos hazarded his best guess in assuming that God enjoys playing dice. His friend Albert Einstein, at Princeton, was convinced of the opposite: "God does not play dice with the universe. — Albert-Laszlo Barabasi

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

There'll be plenty of time to rest in the grave. — Paul Erdos

Every human activity, good or bad, except mathematics, must come to an end. — Paul Erdos

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 — Paul Erdos

It will be another million years, at least, before we understand the primes. — Paul Erdos

Here I am: My brain is open. — Paul Erdos

Finally I am becoming stupider no more. — Paul Erdos

My brain is open. — Paul Erdos

Television is something the Russians invented to destroy American education. — Paul Erdos

When Euler died, he simply said I am finished and collapsed, to which someone in the audience muttered darkly" Another conjecture of Euler is proved — Paul Erdos

Mathematics is not yet ready for such problems. — Paul Erdos