“It came as a tremendous surprise, for in his student days Einstein had been a lazy dog… He never bothered about mathematics at all.”

—  Hermann Minkowski

as quoted in a conversation with Max Born about the development of the theory of relativity, by Carl Seelig, Albert Einstein: A Documentary Biography (1956)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 23, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It came as a tremendous surprise, for in his student days Einstein had been a lazy dog… He never bothered about mathema…" by Hermann Minkowski?
Hermann Minkowski photo
Hermann Minkowski 11
German mathematician and physicist 1864–1909

Related quotes

Stephen Hawking photo

“Einstein is the only figure in the physical sciences with a stature that can be compared with Newton. Newton is reported to have said "If I have seen further than other men, it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants." This remark is even more true of Einstein who stood on the shoulders of Newton. Both Newton and Einstein put forward a theory of mechanics and a theory of gravity but Einstein was able to base General Relativity on the mathematical theory of curved spaces that had been constructed by Riemann while Newton had to develop his own mathematical machinery. It is therefore appropriate to acclaim Newton as the greatest figure in mathematical physics and the Principia is his greatest achievement.”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

"Newton's Principia" in 300 Years of Gravitation. (1987) by S. W. Hawking and W. Israel, p. 4

Newton Lee photo

“Teachers, not students, are the ones who are failing. As Albert Einstein said that “all religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree,” the detachment of philosophy – the forefather of all knowledge and academic disciplines – from mathematics, sciences, and technology is the fundamental reason for failure in modern-day K-12 and higher education.”

Newton Lee American computer scientist

Google It: Total Information Awareness, 2016

A.E. Housman photo

“A textual critic engaged upon his business is not at all like Newton investigating the motions of the planets: he is much more like a dog hunting for fleas. If a dog hunted for fleas on mathematical principles, basing his researches on statistics of area and population, he would never catch a flea except by accident.”

A.E. Housman (1859–1936) English classical scholar and poet

"The Application of Thought to Textual Criticism", a lecture delivered on August 4, 1921

Bill Bryson photo

“When the poet Paul Valery once asked Albert Einstein if he kept a notebook to record his ideas, Einstein looked at him with mild but genuine surprise. "Oh, that's not necessary," he replied. "It's so seldom I have one.”

Bill Bryson book A Short History of Nearly Everything

Source: A Short History of Nearly Everything

Paul Lafargue photo

“Jehovah … gave his worshippers the supreme example of ideal laziness; after six days of work, he rests for all eternity.”

Paul Lafargue (1842–1911) French politician

The Right to Be Lazy (1883), H. Kerr, trans. (1907), pp. 12-13

“He died that day because his body had served its purpose. His soul had done what it came to do, learned what it came to learn, and then was free to leave.”

Garth Stein The Art of Racing in the Rain

Source: The Art of Racing in the Rain

Suze Robertson photo

“I never had difficulties with my students, for I was prepared for their pranks, because fortunately I had often been naughty myself. We frequently made tremendous fun at the Art Academy in The Hague... So I still had my own experience in this area fresh in my mind.”

Suze Robertson (1855–1922) Dutch painter

(version in original Dutch / origineel citaat van Suze Robertson:) Moeilijkheden met mijn leerlingen [o.a. op de Rotterdamse H.B.S. - waar ze met lesgeven begon - van 1876 tot 1882] heb ik nooit gehad, want ik was voorbereid op hun streken, omdat ik gelukkig zelf dikwijls ondeugend was geweest. Wat hadden we op de Haagsche Academie vaak 'n ontzettende pret gemaakt!. .Dus had ik mijn eigen ervaring op dit gebied nog frisch in 't geheugen.
Suze was teaching first in Rotterdam at the Dutch High School, from 1876 to 1882, and afterwards one year in Amsterdam, 1883; then she stopped teaching
Source: 1900 - 1922, Onder de Menschen: Suze Robertson' (1912), p. 30

“Brother Leon arrived late for the performance. His late entrance was not a surprise. Everybody knew that Leon hated the student skits and sketches. Too often there had been hilarious takeoffs on the faculty and, a few years ago, a devastating burlesque of Brother Leon by a student named Henry Boudreau. Boudreau had minced across the stage, speaking in a prissy voice, wielding an oversized baseball bat the way Leon used his teacher's pointer, as a weapon. The performance had become a legend at Trinity. But funny thing about Boudreau: He had flunked out at the end of the year.”

Robert Cormier book Beyond the Chocolate War

Source: Beyond the Chocolate War (1985), p. 246-247

Nick Hornby photo

“These feelings were exactly what he had been so afraid of, and this was why he had been so sure that falling in love was rubbish, and, surprise surprise, it was rubbish, and … and it was too late.”

Nick Hornby About a Boy

About a Boy (1998)

William Osler photo

“I have had three personal ideals: One to do the day's work well and not to bother about tomorrow.”

William Osler (1849–1919) Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospi…

Remarks at a farewell dinner address in New York (20 May 1905), later published in Aequanimitas, and Other Addresses (1910 edition), p. 473.
Context: I have had three personal ideals: One to do the day's work well and not to bother about tomorrow. You may say that is not a satisfactory ideal. It is; and there is not one which the student can carry with him into practice with greater effect. To it more than anything else I owe whatever success I have had — to this power of settling down to the day's work and trying to do it well to the best of my ability, and letting the future take care of itself.
The second ideal has been to act the Golden Rule, as far as in me lay, toward my professional brethren and toward the patients committed to my care.
And the third has been to cultivate such a measure of equanimity as would enable me to bear success with humility, the affection of my friends without pride, and to be ready when the day of sorrow and grief came, to meet it with the courage befitting a man.
What the future has in store for me, I cannot tell — you cannot tell. Nor do I care much, so long as I carry with me, as I shall, the memory of the past you have given me. Nothing can take that away.

Related topics