A technique is a trick that works.

How did he do it? He must be a genius!

Stan Ulam was lazy, ... He talked too much ... He was self-centered ... . He had an overpowering personality.

We often hear that mathematics consists mainly of "proving theorems." Is a writer's job mainly that of "writing sentences?"

Mathematicians also make terrible salesmen. Physicists can discover the same thing as a mathematician and say 'We've discovered a great new law of nature. Give us a billion dollars.' And if it doesn't change the world, then they say, 'There's an even deeper thing. Give us another billion dollars.'

God created infinity, and man, unable to understand infinity, had to invent finite sets.

[In mathematics] There are two kinds of mistakes. There are fatal mistakes that destroy a theory, but there are also contingent ones, which are useful in testing the stability of a theory.