57 Quotes by John von Neumann

Young man, in mathematics you don’t understand things. You just get used to them.

Computers are like humans – they do everything except think.

There’s no sense in being precise when you don’t even know what you’re talking about.

There probably is a God. Many things are easier to explain if there is than if there isn’t.

You don’t have to be responsible for the world that you’re in.

The emphasis on mathematical methods seems to be shifted more towards combinatorics and set theory – and away from the algorithm of differential equations which dominates mathematical physics.

Neumann, to a physicist seeking help with a difficult problem: Simple. This can be solved by using the method of characteristics. Physicist: I’m afraid I don’t understand the method of characteristics. Neumann: In mathematics you don’t understand things. You just get used to them.

A large part of mathematics which becomes useful developed with absolutely no desire to be useful, and in a situation where nobody could possibly know in what area it would become useful; and there were no general indications that it ever would be so.

An element which stimulates itself will hold a stimulus indefinitely.