Alan Turing

"All the evidence we have suggests that it is the outermost layer of the brain that does most of our thinking."

"It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate minds cannot be free."

"Science is a differential equation. Religion is a boundary condition."

"To be accepted, both as a physical fact and as a logical explanation, the concept of digital machine thinking must pass further tests."

"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim."

"I believe that at the end of the century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted."

"Machines take me by surprise with great frequency."

"In attempting to construct such machines we should not be irreverently upstart in them, but should rather be humble and modest."

"The idea of 'thinking machines' may seem strange, but it reflects our growing understanding of the mind itself."

"We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty that needs to be done."

"Do you know why people like chatting? It's because we like to pretend that someone is listening."

"The beauty of mathematics is that it gives us tools to understand the incomprehensible."

"If we think of machines as having some form of consciousness, we must ask what consciousness truly means."

"It is possible to invent a single machine which can be used to compute any computable sequence."

"Those who can imagine anything, can create anything."

"The digital computer is in principle an universal computing machine."

"One day ladies will take their computers for walks in the park and tell each other, 'My little computer said such a funny thing this morning.'"

"The punishment may well have been something well deserved. But nevertheless, it was horribly unjust."

"We are not interested in the fact that the brain has the consistency of cold porridge."

"How would you like to live in a world where, the moment you're born, a physician examines you and pronounces you fit or unfit?"

"The original question, 'Can machines think?' I believe to be too meaningless to deserve discussion."

"Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations we can perform without thinking about them."

"Mathematics is a process of staring hard at nothing until something jumps out."

"It seems probable that once the machine thinking method had started, it would not take long to outstrip our feeble powers."

"The idea of creating a thinking machine seems almost blasphemous to some, yet it is the natural evolution of human thought."

"We may say most aptly that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves."

"Don't worry about your difficulties in mathematics, I assure you that mine are far greater."

"The effect of a machine's behavior on an observer may be all that matters."

"To those who do not know mathematics it is hard to feel the beauty, the deepest beauty of nature."

"In the end we are interested in something much more subtle: whether a machine can make us believe it thinks."