“First rate mathematicians choose first rate people, but second rate mathematicians choose third rate people.”

As quoted in Comic Sections (Dublin 1993) by D MacHale

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Do you have more details about the quote "First rate mathematicians choose first rate people, but second rate mathematicians choose third rate people." by André Weil?

André Weil11

French mathematician 1906–1998

George Forsythe (1917–1972) Stanford University computer scientist

George Forsythe (1966) cited in: Peter Naur (1992) Computing: A human activity. p. 230

“André Weil suggested that there is a logarithmic law at work: first-rate people attract other first-rate people, but second-rate people tend to hire third-raters, and third-rate people hire fifth-raters. If a dean or a president is genuinely interested in building and maintaining a high-quality university (and some of them are), then he must not grant complete self-determination to a second-rate department; he must, instead, use his administrative powers to intervene and set things right. That's one of the proper functions of deans and presidents, and pity the poor university in which a large proportion of both the faculty and the administration are second-raters; it is doomed to diverge to minus infinity.”

Paul R. Halmos (1916–2006) American mathematician

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

“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”

Judy Garland (1922–1969) actress, singer and vaudevillian from the United States

As quoted in Business Etiquette for the Nineties : Your Ticket to Career Success (1992) by Lou Kennedy, p. 8
Variant: Always be a first rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else.

“First-rate science fiction was, and remains, more interesting than second-rate art.”

Clive James (1939–2019) Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist

Ibid.
Essays and reviews, From the Land of Shadows (1982)

“I'd rather be a first-rate version of myself than a second-rate version of anybody.”

Liza Minnelli (1946) American actress and singer

Liza Minelli, interviewed by Gene Shalit in the September 1977 issue of The Ladies Home Journal, as quoted in "Women in the News," https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=yXMjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=a2cEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5851%2C3647577 in The Sarasota Herald-Tribune (August 24, 1977), p. 6-D <br class="br">Variant: But I'd rather be a first-rate version of myself than a second-rate version of somebody else. <br class="br">Context: I don't sing them because I couldn't sing them as well as she did. I'd rather be a first-rate version of myself than a second-rate version of anybody.

“I wrote somewhere once that the third-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking with the majority, the second-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking with the minority, and the first-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking.”

A.A. Milne (1882–1956) British author

War with Honour http://books.google.com/books?id=QmQDAAAAMAAJ&q=&quot;I+wrote+somewhere+once+that+the+third+rate+mind+was+only+happy+when+it+was+thinking+with+the+majority+the+second+rate+mind+was+only+happy+when+it+was+with+the+minority+and+a+first+rate+mind+was+only+happy+when+it+was+thinking&quot;, Macmillan War Pamphlets, Issue 2 (1940).

“The qualities of a second-rate writer can easily be defined, but a first-rate writer can only be experienced. It is just the thing in him which escapes analysis that makes him first-rate.”

Willa Cather (1873–1947) American writer and novelist

Katherine Mansfield (1925)

“I would rather present a first-rate version of myself than a second-rate version of Mama.”

Liza Minnelli (1946) American actress and singer

Liza Minelli, as quoted in I Remember It Well (1975) by Vincente Minelli with Hector Arce, p. 395 https://books.google.com/books?id=D6jDtmiJCpkC&q=minelli+%22second-rate%22+%22first-rate+version%22&dq=minelli+%22second-rate%22+%22first-rate+version%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCoQ6AEwBGoVChMI0on3sqjdxgIVxHg-Ch1NhwVD; reprinted in "Judy and Liza, Part 3" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CfpjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WuYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7188%2C5401411 by Vincente Minelli, in The Sydney Herald (August 15, 1975), p. 8 <br class="br">Context: I couldn't sing Mama's special songs. I couldn't do them as well. I would rather present a first-rate version of myself than a second-rate version of Mama.

“It's a shame that we have to choose between two such second-rate countries as the USSR and the USA.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

“I chucked the law for astronomy, and I knew that even if I were second-rate or third-rate, it was astronomy that mattered.”

Edwin Hubble (1889–1953) American astronomer

as quoted by [N. Y. Mayall, Biographical memoir. Volume 41, Memoirs of the National Academy of sciences, National Academy of Sciences (U.S.), National Academy of Sciences, 1970, 179]
Attributed

“First rate mathematicians choose first rate people, but second rate mathematicians choose third rate people.”

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André Weil11

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