May every young scientist remember... and not fail to keep his eyes open for the possibility that an irritating failure read more

May every young scientist remember... and not fail to keep his eyes open for the possibility that an irritating failure of his apparatus to give consistent results may once or twice in a lifetime conceal an important discovery. -Patrick Blackett.

Men have become the tools of their tools.

Men have become the tools of their tools.

It's going to be a bummer if Mars turns out to be like us.

It's going to be a bummer if Mars turns out to be like us.

I'm projecting somewhere between 100 million and 200 million computers [on the Net] by the end of December 2000, and read more

I'm projecting somewhere between 100 million and 200 million computers [on the Net] by the end of December 2000, and about 300 million users by that same time.

An idea is the only level which moves the world.

An idea is the only level which moves the world.

The facts of the present won't sit still for a portrait. They are constantly vibrating, full of clutter and confusion.

The facts of the present won't sit still for a portrait. They are constantly vibrating, full of clutter and confusion.

There are more ideas on earth than intellectuals imagine. And these ideas are more active, stronger, more resistant, more passionate read more

There are more ideas on earth than intellectuals imagine. And these ideas are more active, stronger, more resistant, more passionate than "politicians" think. We have to be there at the birth of ideas, the bursting outward of their force: not in books expressing them, but in events manifesting this force, in struggles carried on around ideas, for or against them. Ideas do not rule the world. But it is because the world has ideas... that it is not passively ruled by those who are its leaders or those who would like to teach it, once and for all, what it must think.

To err is human - and to blame it on a computer is even more so.

To err is human - and to blame it on a computer is even more so.

... it is certain that the real function of art is to increase our self-consciousness; to make us more aware read more

... it is certain that the real function of art is to increase our self-consciousness; to make us more aware of what we are, and therefore of what the universe in which we live really is. And since mathematics, in its own way, also performs this function, it is not only aesthetically charming but profoundly significant. It is an art, and a great art.