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

Combinatorics is an honest subject. No adèles, no sigma-algebras. You count balls in a box, and you either have the right number or you haven't. You get the feeling that the result you have discovered is forever, because it's concrete. Other branches of mathematics are not so clear-cut. Functional analysis of infinite-dimensional spaces is never fully convincing; you don't get a feeling of having done an honest day's work. Don't get the wrong idea - combinatorics is not just putting balls into boxes. Counting finite sets can be a highbrow undertaking, with sophisticated techniques.

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

There is something in statistics that makes it very similar to astrology.

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

Very little mathematics has direct applications - though fortunately most of it has plenty of indirect ones.

THE COMPUTER IS JUST AN INSTRUMENT for doing faster what we already know how to do slower. All pretensions to computer intelligence and paradise-tomorrow promises should be toned down before the public turns away in disgust. And if that should happen, our civilization might not survive.