Quotes on the Theory of Computing

Why is Complexity Theory so Complicated?

• There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
  There is another which states that this has already happened.
  (Douglas Adams, "The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy", 1980)

• Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
  (Albert Einstein, Reader's Digest, Oct. 1977)

• In mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them.
  (Johann von Neumann)

The Legacy of Paul Erdos

• You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.
  (Naguib Mahfouz)

• The mere formulation of a problem is far more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skills. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science.
  (Albert Einstein)

• It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers.
  (James Thurber)

On Proving Theorems

• If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?
  (Albert Einstein)

• One can measure the importance of a scientific work by the number of erlier publications rendered superfluous by it.
  (David Hilbert)

• I have had my results for a long time: but I do not yet know how I am to arrive at them.
  (Karl Friedrich Gauss)

• We often hear that mathematics consists mainly of "proving theorems." Is a writer's job mainly that of "writing sentences?"
  (Giancarlo Rota, in preface to P. Davis and R. Hersh "The Mathematical Experience", Boston: Birkhäuser, 1981)

• Research is the process of going up alleys to see it they are blind
  (Marston Bates)

• If you want truly to understand something, try to change it.
  (Kurt Lewin)

• When you have completed 95% of your journey you are halfway there.
  (Japanese Proverb)

• I like thinking big. If you're going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big.
  (Donald Trump)

• Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
  (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

On Writing Theory Papers

• This paper gives wrong solutions to trivial problems. The basic error, however, is not new.
  (Clifford Truesdell, Mathematical Reviews, 12, p. 561)

• The Lord's Prayer is 66 words, the Gettysburg Address is 286 words, and there are 1,322 words in the Declaration of Independence. Yet, government regulations on the sale of cabbage total 26,911 words.
  (David McIntosh)

• I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
  (Douglas Adams)

• If you can't convince them, confuse them.
  (Harry S. Truman)

• The secret of creativity is knowing how to hide your sources
  (Albert Einstain)

• There is no sense being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about
  (John von Neumann)

On Motivations

• We are on a mission for God.
  (John Belushi in The Blues Brothers, directed by John Landis, 1980)

• You'll never know if you don't go
  You'll never shine if you don't glow.
  (Smash Mouth in All Star, 1999)

• To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.
  (Bertrand Russell)

• Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.
  (Michelangelo)

On Scientific Policy

• Evil will always triumph, because good is dumb.
  (Rick Moranis in Space Balls, directed by Mel Brooks)

• Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers.
  (Mignon McLaughlin)

On Finding a Job

• Find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it.
  (Katherine Whitehor)

• Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
  (Mark Twain)

• Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.
  (Woody Allen)

• Property is a nuisance.
  (Paul Erdos)