Quotes from John Allen Paulos

Certainty a strange Ferris wheel of a statement!

I think, therefore I laugh.

The once-surprising existence of non-Euclidean models of Euclid's first four axioms can be seen as a sort of mathematical joke.

Mathematicians are a bit like the laconic Vermonter who, when asked if he's lived in the state his whole life, replies, "Not yet."

Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security

The Internet is the world's largest library. It's just that all the books are on the floor.

Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.

The nuclear weapons on board just one of our Trident submarines contain eight times the firepower expended in all of World War II.

For example, knowing that it takes only about eleven and a half days for a million seconds to tick away, whereas almost thirty-two years are required for a billion seconds to pass, gives one a better grasp of the relative magnitudes of these two common numbers.

First, take a deep breath. Assume Shakespeare's account is accurate and Julius Caesar gasped "You too, Brutus" before breathing his last. What are the chances you just inhaled a molecule which Caesar exhaled in his dying breath? The surprising answer is that, with probability better than 99 percent, you did just inhale such a molecule.

I sometimes think it would be beneficial if people thought of each other as "historical factorials." Thus, (Myrtle!) would be understood not just as present-day Myrtle but as the product of all her past experiences.

Certainty a strange Ferris wheel of a statement!

Inspect every piece of pseudoscience and you will find a security blanket, a thumb to suck, a skirt to hold. What have we to offer in exchange? Uncertainty! Insecurity! – Isaac Asimov

The paradoxical conclusion is that it would be very unlikely for unlikely events not to occur.

This tendency to personalize is, as we'll see, a characteristic of many people who suffer from innumeracy. Equally typical is a tendency to equate the risk from some obscure and exotic malady with the chances of suffering from heart and circulatory disease, from which about 12,000 Americans die each week.

The size of a human cell is to that of a person as a person's size is to that of Rhode Island. Likewise, a virus is to a person as a person is to the earth; an atom is to a person as a person is to the earth's orbit around the sun; and a proton is to a person as a person is to the distance to Alpha Centauri.

When feminist author Shere Hite or columnist Ann Landers reports that a surprisingly high percentage of their respondents are having affairs or would rather not have had children, we should automatically ask ourselves who is most likely to answer these questionnaires: someone having an affair or someone reasonably content, someone exasperated by her kids or someone happy with them.

Jatkuvasti monimutkaistuvassa, järjettömiä yhteensattumia täynnä olevassa maailmassa ei monissa tilanteissa tarvita yhtään enempää tosiasioita – olemme nytkin jo hukkumassa niihin – vaan tunnettujen tosiasioiden parempaa ymmärtämistä...

Partiendo del hecho geométrico y existencial de que nuestro ser está en el centro de nuestra historia y en la periferia de las historias de los demás, muchos llegamos al mismo tiempo a la algo extravagante conclusión de que nuestra vida abunda en coincidencias y sucesos notables, mientras que las de los demás es más bien típica.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. –WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

Mathematicians are a bit like the laconic Vermonter who, when asked if he's lived in the state his whole life, replies, "Not yet.")

A study indicates that whether or not a department has a mathematics or a statistics requirement is the most important single determinant of where a woman will attend graduate school to study political science.

The only bit of logic-based public bathroom humor I know is: the difference between men and women is that between the statement [P and not Q] and the statement [Q and not P].