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Edmund Landau
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Science Quotes by Edmund Landau (4 quotes)
~~[Misquoted ?]~~ It gives me the same pleasure when someone else proves a good theorem as when I do it myself.
— Edmund Landau
Webmaster believes this is a first person paraphrase misquoted from “It was said round 1912 that it gave him the same pleasure when someone else proved a good theorem as if he had done it himself,” as given in Littlewood, A Mathematician’s Miscellany (1953), reissued as Béla Bollobás, Littlewood’s Miscellany (1986), 24. Notice that Littlewood states this in the third person—about Landau. As a first person quote, it is sometimes cited to a much later author, Desmond MacHale, Comic Sections (1993). Webmaster has not yet found a primary source to authenticate this first person version, and since the earlier occurrence is hedged with “it was said”, Webmaster suggests this first person version is a misquote, and is not an authentic verbatim quote.
I can testify that she [Emmy Noether] is a great mathematician, but that she is a woman, I cannot swear.
— Edmund Landau
As recalled by John Edensor Littlewood in his A Mathematician’s Miscellany (1953), reissued as Béla Bollobás (ed.), Littlewood’s Miscellany (1986), 125. Littlewood identified this as Landau’s response, when “asked for a testimony to the effect that Emmy Noether was a great woman mathematician.” Littlewood also notes for context, “(She was very plain)”.
Please forget everything you have learned in school; for you haven’t learned it. … My daughters have been studying (chemistry) for several semesters already, think they have learned differential and integral calculus in school, and even today don’t know why x · y = y · x is true.
— Edmund Landau
From 'Vorwort für den Lernenden', Grundlagen der Analysis (1930), vi. A later edition of the German text, published in the United States (1951, 1965), included Prefaces (only) translated into English by F. Steinhardt. In the latter text, the quote appears in English on pages 7-8, and in the original German on pages 15-16: “Bitte vergiß alles was Du auf der Schule gelernt hast; denn Du hast es nicht gelernt. … meine Töchter … schon mehrere Semester studieren (Chemie), schon auf der Schule Differential- und Integral-rechnung gelernt zu haben glauben und heute noch nicht, wissen, warum x · y = y · x ist.”
The letter e may now no longer be used to denote anything other than this positive universal constant.
— Edmund Landau
In Differential and Integral Calculus (1951), 44. This is Landau’s comment after he writes “Definition 13: “e is the solution of log y= 1”.
Quotes by others about Edmund Landau (1)
It was said round 1912 that it gave him [Edmund Landau] the same pleasure when someone else proved a good theorem as if he had done it himself.
In A Mathematician’s Miscellany (1953), reissued as Béla Bollobás, Littlewood’s Miscellany (1986), 24. Notice that Littlewood states this in the third person—about Landau. The words are found on the web paraphrased as a first person quote (It gives me … as when I do it myself), sometimes citing a later author, Desmond MacHale, Comic Sections (1993). Webmaster has not yet found a primary source to authenticate the first person version, and since the earlier occurrence is hedged with “it was said”, Webmaster suggests the first person version is not an authentic verbatim quote.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
