It is not so much whether a theorem is useful that matters, but how elegant it is. Stanislaw Ulam More Quotes by Stanislaw Ulam More Quotes From Stanislaw Ulam Knowing what is big and what is small is more important than being able to solve partial differential equations. Stanislaw Ulam able important knowing Whatever is worth saying, can be stated in fifty words or less. Stanislaw Ulam fifty The mathematicians know a great deal about very little and the physicists very little about a great deal. Stanislaw Ulam mathematician physicist littles The infinite we shall do right away. The finite may take a little longer. Stanislaw Ulam infinite may littles One conversation centered on the ever accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life, which gives the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue. Stanislaw Ulam technology race giving I am turned off when I see only formulas and symbols, and little text. Stanislaw Ulam turned-off formulas littles Thoughts are steered in different ways. Stanislaw Ulam different-ways different way Very soon I discovered that if one gets a feeling for no more than a dozen other radiation and nuclear constants, one can imagine the subatomic world almost tangibly, and manipulate the picture dimensionally and qualitatively, before calculating more precise relationships. Stanislaw Ulam nuclear feelings world I'm an agnostic. Sometimes I muse deeply on the forces that are for me invisible. When I am almost close to the idea of God, I feel immediately estranged by the horrors of this world, which he seems to tolerate. Stanislaw Ulam agnostic world ideas Do not lose your faith. A mighty fortress is our mathematics. Mathematics will rise to the challenge, as it always has. Stanislaw Ulam fortresses mathematics challenges It is most important in creative science not to give up. If you are an optimist you will be willing to "try" more than if you are a pessimist. Stanislaw Ulam giving-up important creative What exactly is mathematics? Many have tried but nobody has really succeeded in defining mathematics; it is always something else. Stanislaw Ulam exactly-is defining mathematics What exactly is mathematics? Many have tried but nobody has Stanislaw Ulam exactly-is numbers people It is still an unending source of surprise for me how a few scribbles on a blackboard or on a piece of paper can change the course of human affairs. Stanislaw Ulam pieces paper change Mathematics may be a way of developing physically, that is anatomically, new connections in the brain. Stanislaw Ulam connections brain may Ada came from Lwów. She was a very good looking girl who was studying mathematics at the University of Geneva. For a few years I had an off-and-on romance with her. Stanislaw Ulam romance girl years It was not so much that I was doing mathematics, but rather that mathematics had taken possession of me. Stanislaw Ulam mathematics possession taken As a mathematician, von Neumann was quick, brilliant, efficient, and enormously broad in scientific interests beyond mathematics itself. He knew his technical abilities; his virtuosity in following complicated reasoning and his insights were supreme; yet he lacked absolute self confidence. Stanislaw Ulam self-confidence brilliant complicated He [John von Neumann] had the invaluable faculty of being able to take the most difficult problem and separate it into its components, whereupon everything looked brlliantly simple. Stanislaw Ulam learning able simple I am always amazed how much a certain facility with a special and apparently narrow technique can accomplish. Stanislaw Ulam certain technique special
