John von Neumann

"The real problem is that programmers have spent far too much time worrying about efficiency and not enough about correctness."

"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."

"The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment. The important parts of the discipline do not become visible or interesting until a considerable technical background has been acquired."

"In life, you do not merely have to succeed; you must not fail."

"Most of us survive in life by our ability to form habits and adjust to them."

"I think it is important to emphasize the continuity between mathematics and the physical world."

"The computer as conceived today is indeed man's latest invention, but it is the inevitable one."

"One of the main functions of the intellect is to take the particular and make it general."

"The theory of automata provides a bridge between physics and psychology that may well prove to be as important as the bridge between physics and chemistry."

"There is one clear consequence of the second law of thermodynamics—that life itself is improbable and temporary."

"An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory."

"To understand complexity, one must break it into simpler parts; but one must never forget how those parts work together."

"The essence of mathematics is not to make simple things complicated, but to make complicated things simple."

"I would like to withdraw my remarks that the visible universe is only likely to last another billion years or so. I had been thinking in too parochial a manner."

"The convergence of mathematics and empirical science marks the true beginning of modern thought."

"Games are not trivial pursuits. They reveal the fundamental structure of rational decision-making."

"One can build a universal machine that can compute anything that is computable. The existence of such a machine leads to novel results about what can and cannot be proved."

"The impact of a successful idea surpasses that of successful people. Ideas have a life of their own."

"Precision in language is not merely a matter of pedantic correctness; it is essential for understanding the world."

"I find myself torn between physics and mathematics, between the concrete and the abstract. Perhaps that is why I have tried to work in both."

"The ability to think ahead is the mark of the superior intellect."

"Most of the time we are fighting against the dead weight of habit and tradition."

"Errors of intuition can far exceed errors of calculation."

"The future determines the past. The future is what we are building toward in every moment."

"We are convinced that to understand the operations of nature, we must learn to think like nature itself."

"The machine is the answer to the question of how we can think faster and more clearly."

"If you wish to foresee the future of mathematics, you must look at its past."

"The paradox of our time is that we have more information but less understanding."

"A sufficiently advanced understanding of any phenomenon approaches poetry."

"The search for pattern is the foundation of all intellectual endeavor."