Daniel Tammet Quotes

• I feel traveling certainly does broaden the mind. In my case certainly I feel more confident. It gives you a new perspective on the world.

  Daniel Tammet

  Giving   Perspective   Mind  

  4083

• The human brain is like a memory system that records every thing that happens to us and makes intelligent predictions based on those experiences.

  Daniel Tammet

  Memories   Intelligent   Brain  

  Daniel Tammet (2009). “Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind”, p.32, Simon and Schuster

  717

• Every culture has contributed to maths just as it has contributed to literature. It's a universal language; numbers belong to everyone.

  Daniel Tammet

  Math   Numbers   Culture  

  1661

• Why learn a number like pi to so many decimal places? The answer I gave then as I do now is that pi is for me an extremely beautiful and utterly unique thing. Like the Mona Lisa or a Mozart symphony, pi is its own reason for loving it.

  Daniel Tammet

  Beautiful   Unique   Symphony  

  Daniel Tammet (2007). “Born On A Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant”, p.185, Simon and Schuster

  3048

• I recited Pi to 22,514 decimal points in five hours and nine minutes. I was able to do this because of weeks of study, aided by the unusual synaesthesic way my mind perceives numbers as complex multidimensional coloured and textured shapes.

  Daniel Tammet

  Numbers   Mind   Shapes  

  "This much I know" by John Hind, www.theguardian.com. January 31, 2009.

  3139

• When I was a child, my behavior was far from being what most people would label 'intelligent.' It was often limited, repetitive and anti-social. I could not do many of the things that most people take for granted, such as looking someone in the eye or deciphering a person's body language, and only acquired these skills with much effort over time.

  Daniel Tammet

  Children   Eye   Intelligent  

  "Inside the Savant Mind: Tips for Thinking from an Extraordinary Thinker". Interview with Jonah Lehrer, www.scientificamerican.com.

  3745

• Like works of literature, mathematical ideas help expand our circle of empathy, liberating us from the tyranny of a single, parochial point of view. Numbers, properly considered, make us better people.

  Daniel Tammet

  Views   Circles   Ideas  

  "Thinking in Numbers". Book by Daniel Tammet, 2012.

  3362

• I love music. I have a fondness for Chopin, and I very much like his 'Raindrop Prelude.'

  Daniel Tammet

  Raindrops   Music Love   I Love Music  

  4776

• When I multiply numbers together, I see two shapes. The image starts to change and evolve, and a third shape emerges. That's the answer. It's mental imagery. It's like maths without having to think.

  Daniel Tammet

  Math   Thinking   Two  

  "A genius explains" by Richard Johnson, www.theguardian.com. February 11, 2005.

  245

• It was hard for me to find my voice because I was, for so long, absorbed in my own world.

  Daniel Tammet

  Voice   Long   World  

  3432

• My autism is a very mild form. It was diagnosed at the age of 25, partly because it wasn't diagnosable as a teenager (this is Asperger's syndrome, specifically). But there were certainly traits within that condition, within the autism spectrum in general, especially at the high functioning end, that I think are best looked at as pluses.

  Daniel Tammet

  Teenager   Thinking   Autism  

  4389

• I'm inconsistent because I'm human.

  Daniel Tammet

  Inconsistent   Humans  

  2829

• My mother is not a model. She is not perfect. That awareness is part of learning to love someone. Predicting the actions of someone is an act of love. We persist, even when we get it wrong. That's the beauty of love.

  Daniel Tammet

  Mother   Perfect   Action  

  "Daniel Tammet: 'Maths is as rich, inspiring and human as literature'". Interview with Adam Feinstein, www.theguardian.com. November 10, 2012.

  2259

• There is no such thing as an average person. They really are guidelines for people to grapple with the unknown, and we can always surprise expectations.

  Daniel Tammet

  Average   People   Expectations  

  4418

• I would play with numbers in a way that other kids would play with their friends.

  Daniel Tammet

  Kids   Play   Numbers  

  4883

• Often autism is portrayed in the media as a very negative condition, as something that prevents somebody from communicating or from socializing or from being able to have any kind of normal, happy life.

  Daniel Tammet

  Happy Life   Media   Autism  

  2991

• Fischer, the great American chess champion, famously said, 'Chess is life.' I would say, 'Pi is life.'

  Daniel Tammet

  Champion   Chess   Great American  

  5171

• We will always have more to discover, more to invent, more to understand and that's much closer to art and literature than any science.

  Daniel Tammet

  Art   Literature  

  2859

• We know next to nothing with any certainty about Pythagoras, except that he was not really called Pythagoras. The name by which he is known to us was probably a nickname bestowed by his followers. According to one source, it meant ‘He who spoke truth like an oracle’. Rather than entrust his mathematical and philosophical ideas to paper, Pythagoras is said to have expounded them before large crowds. The world’s most famous mathematician was also its first rhetorician.

  Daniel Tammet

  Philosophical   Names   Ideas  

  2890

• Logic obviously is important. You need to be able to figure things out, to go to the end of a particular problem. But intuition is very important because it references things that logic alone cannot.

  Daniel Tammet

  Intuition   Important   Needs  

  1661

• I have never played the lottery in my life and never will. Voltaire described lotteries as a tax on stupidity. More specifically, I think, on innumeracy.

  Daniel Tammet

  Thinking   Stupidity   Taxes  

  "This much I know" by John Hind, www.theguardian.com. January 31, 2009.

  5113

• I can well imagine that certain writers, even writers that we'd consider today very great writers, may not necessarily have tested highly on IQ just because of their numerical skills, or maybe they may not be very good at memory, and are not particularly good at these kinds of tests.

  Daniel Tammet

  Memories   Skills   May  

  2785

• I thought of the infinitely many points that can divide the space between two human hearts.

  Daniel Tammet

  Heart   Two   Space  

  5106

• Even the greatest mathematicians, the ones that we would put into our mythology of great mathematicians, had to do a great deal of leg work in order to get to the solution in the end.

  Daniel Tammet

  Order   Legs   Ends  

  2125

• I know from my own experience that there is much more to 'intelligence' than an IQ number. In fact, I hesitate to believe that any system could really reflect the complexity and uniqueness of one person's mind, or meaningfully describe the nature of his or her potential.

  Daniel Tammet

  Believe   Numbers   Mind  

  "Inside the Savant Mind: Tips for Thinking from an Extraordinary Thinker". Interview with Jonah Lehrer, www.scientificamerican.com.

  404

• From 'Embracing the Wide Sky', I went to the States, to Canada and to different parts of Europe as well. I gave interviews in several languages.

  Daniel Tammet

  Europe   Sky   Different  

  4568

• No relationship is without its difficulties and this is certainly true when one or both of the persons involved has an autistic spectrum disorder. Even so, I believe what is truly essential to the success of any relationship is not so much compatibility, but love. When you love someone, virtually anything is possible.

  Daniel Tammet

  Believe   When You Love Someone   Essentials  

  Daniel Tammet (2007). “Born On A Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant”, p.155, Simon and Schuster

  3656

• I changed my name because it didn't fit with the way I saw myself.

  Daniel Tammet

  Names   Way   Saws  

  2385

• Moment by moment throughout our lifetime, our brains hum with the work of making meaning: weaving together many thousands of threads of information into all manner of thoughts, feelings, memories, and ideas.

  Daniel Tammet

  Memories   Ideas   Feelings  

  Daniel Tammet (2009). “Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind”, p.7, Simon and Schuster

  2890

• I have tried to be more flexible, but I always end up feeling more uncomfortable. Retaining a sense of control is really important. I like to do things in my own time, and in my own style, so an office with targets and bureaucracy just wouldn't work.

  Daniel Tammet

  Office   Feelings   Style  

  "A genius explains". Interview with Richard Johnson, www.theguardian.com. February 11, 2005.

  1377

You May Also Like:

Kim Peek

Dean Karnazes

Simon Baron-Cohen

Tony Buzan

Erik Larson

Julia Ormond

Hans Asperger

Catherine O'Hara