“What does it take to be [a mathematician]?”

— Paul R. Halmos

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

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Paul R. Halmos 9

American mathematician 1916–2006

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“What does it take to be [a mathematician]?”

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