“I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.”

“Light travels faster than sound, thats why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.”

“This is a question too difficult for a mathematician. It should be asked of a philosopher"(when asked about completing his income tax form)”

“The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.”

“To dwell on the things that depress or anger us does not help in overcoming them. One must knock them down alone.”

“Past is dead Future is uncertain; Present is all you have, So eat, drink and live merry.”

“Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”

“Dear Habicht, / Such a solemn air of silence has descended between us that I almost feel as if I am committing a sacrilege when I break it now with some inconsequential babble... / What are you up to, you frozen whale, you smoked, dried, canned piece of soul...?”

“Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.”

“One picture is worth a thousand words”

“Imagination is the highest form of research.”

“People like you and me never grow old. We never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born.”

“Pure mathematics is in its way the poetry of logical ideas.”

“The tendencies we have mentioned are something new for America. They arose when, under the influence of the two World Wars and the consequent concentration of all forces on a military goal, a predominantly military mentality developed, which with the almost sudden victory became even more accentuated. The characteristic feature of this mentality is that people place the importance of what Bertrand Russell so tellingly terms “naked power” far above all other factors which affect the relations between peoples. The Germans, misled by Bismarck’s successes in particular, underwent just such a transformation of their mentality—in consequence of which they were entirely ruined in less than a hundred years. I must frankly confess that the foreign policy of the United States since the termination of hostilities has reminded me, sometimes irresistibly, of the attitude of Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II, and I know that, independent of me, this analogy has most painfully occurred to others as well. It is characteristic of the military mentality that non-human factors (atom bombs, strategic bases, weapons of all sorts, the possession of raw materials, etc.) are held essential, while the human being, his desires and thoughts—in short, the psychological factors—are considered as unimportant and secondary. Herein lies a certain resemblance to Marxism, at least insofar as its theoretical side alone is kept in view. The individual is degraded to a mere instrument; he becomes “human materiel.” The normal ends of human aspiration vanish with such a viewpoint. Instead, the military mentality raises “naked power” as a goal in itself—one of the strangest illusions to which men can succumb.”

“A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.”