If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is. John von Neumann
If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.
You insist that there is something a machine cannot do. If you tell me precisely what it is a machine cannot do, then I can always make a machine which will do just that. John von Neumann
You insist that there is something a machine cannot do. If you tell me precisely what it is a machine cannot do, then I can always make a machine which will do just that.
Young man, in mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them. John von Neumann
Young man, in mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them.
Truth is much too complicated to allow anything but approximations. John von Neumann
Truth is much too complicated to allow anything but approximations.
Computers are like humans - they do everything except think. John von Neumann
Computers are like humans - they do everything except think.
Science, as well as technology, will in the near and in the farther future increasingly turn from problems of intensity, substance, and energy, to problems of structure, organization, information, and control. John von Neumann
Science, as well as technology, will in the near and in the farther future increasingly turn from problems of intensity, substance, and energy, to problems of structure, organization, information, and control.
Anyone who attempts to generate random numbers by deterministic means is, of course, living in a state of sin. John von Neumann
Anyone who attempts to generate random numbers by deterministic means is, of course, living in a state of sin.
There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about. John von Neumann
There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about.
With four parameters I can fit an elephant, and with five I can make him wiggle his trunk. John von Neumann
With four parameters I can fit an elephant, and with five I can make him wiggle his trunk.
The sciences do not try to explain, they hardly even try to interpret, they mainly make models. By a model is meant a mathematical construct which, with the addition of certain verbal interpretations, describes observed phenomena. The justification of such a mathematical construct is solely and precisely that it is expected to work-that is, correctly to describe phenomena from a reasonably wide area. John von Neumann
The sciences do not try to explain, they hardly even try to interpret, they mainly make models. By a model is meant a mathematical construct which, with the addition of certain verbal interpretations, describes observed phenomena. The justification of such a mathematical construct is solely and precisely that it is expected to work-that is, correctly to describe phenomena from a reasonably wide area.
The total subject of mathematics is clearly too broad for any of us. I do not think that any mathematician since Gauss has covered it uniformly and fully; even Hilbert did not and all of us are of considerably lesser width quite apart from the question of depth than Hilbert. John von Neumann
The total subject of mathematics is clearly too broad for any of us. I do not think that any mathematician since Gauss has covered it uniformly and fully; even Hilbert did not and all of us are of considerably lesser width quite apart from the question of depth than Hilbert.
All stable processes we shall predict. All unstable processes we shall control. John von Neumann
All stable processes we shall predict. All unstable processes we shall control.
There probably is a God. Many things are easier to explain if there is than if there isn't. John von Neumann
There probably is a God. Many things are easier to explain if there is than if there isn't.
When we talk mathematics, we may be discussing a secondary language built on the primary language of the nervous system. John von Neumann
When we talk mathematics, we may be discussing a secondary language built on the primary language of the nervous system.
Problems are often stated in vague terms... because it is quite uncertain what the problems really are. John von Neumann
Problems are often stated in vague terms... because it is quite uncertain what the problems really are.
I am thinking about something much more important than bombs. I am thinking about computers. John von Neumann
I am thinking about something much more important than bombs. I am thinking about computers.
Born: December 28, 1903
Died: February 8, 1957
Profession: Mathematician
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