Skip to content

A cylinder looks curved, but it's... flat from the point of view of Gaussian curvature. It curves in one direction, but not in the other, and it's important that... both change.

— Michael Atiyah Geometry in 2, 3 and 4 Dimensions (2011)

Another quote →

More quotes by Michael Atiyah

Without dreams there is no art, no mathematics, no life.

Poncelet's closure theorem for triangles and circles.

3 Regular Heptagons formed by continuously joining 1 (blue), 2 (red), or 3 (black) points apart, with respective circumscribed circles.

The most important things in life.., whether you're a football player or a virus, is to deter attackers and run away when necessary.

The Role of Beauty in Mathematics (2015)

Only two people in the universe knew what an electron was, you and God, and you've forgotten!

Sir Michael Atiyah, What is a Spinor? (2013)

All Michael Atiyah quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Michael Atiyah (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.