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Paul Halmos Quotes

1916–2006 United States

Paul Richard Halmos (Hungarian: Halmos Pál) (March 3, 1916 – October 2, 2006) was a Hungarian-born Jewish American mathematician who made fundamental advances in the areas of probability theory, statistics, operator theory, ergodic theory, functional analysis (in particular, Hilbert spaces), and mathematical logic.

United States
Mathematicians

Random Paul Halmos quote

7 quotes

The author discusses valueless measures in pointless spaces.

I Want to be a Mathematician: An Automathography (1985)

I read once that the true mark of a pro — at anything — is that he understands, loves, and is good at even the drudgery of his profession.

I Want to be a Mathematician: An Automathography (1985)

It takes a long time to learn to live — by the time you learn your time is gone.

I Want to be a Mathematician: An Automathography (1985)

Possibly philosophers would look on us mathematicians the same way as we look on the technicians, if they dared.

I Want to be a Mathematician: An Automathography (1985)

I like words more than numbers, and I always did.

I Want to be a Mathematician: An Automathography (1985)

I was too near it then to see how shallow it all was...

I Want to be a Mathematician: An Automathography (1985)

What does it take to be [a mathematician]? I think I know the answer: you have to be born right, you must continually strive to become perfect, you must love mathematics more than anything else, you must work at it hard and without stop, and you must never give up.

I Want to be a Mathematician: An Automathography (1985)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Paul Halmos (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.