Johann von Neumann
(1903 - 1957) US (Hungarian-born) computer scientist, mathematician, & prodigy; founded game theory


~In mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them.


~The sciences do not try to explain, they hardly even try to interpret, they mainly make models. By a model is meant a mathematical construct which, with the addition of certain verbal interpretations, describes observed phenomena. The justification of such a mathematical construct is solely and precisely that it is expected to work.


~You wake me up early in the morning to tell me I am right? Please wait until I am wrong.
(Johann von Neumann, on being phoned at 10:00 AM)