Nevertheless, the consuming hunger of the uncritical mind for what it imagines to be certainty or finality impels it to feast upon shadows in the prevailing famine of substance.

I have always hated machinery, and the only machine I ever understood was a wheelbarrow, and that but imperfectly.

Euclid taught me that without assumptions there is no proof. Therefore, in any argument, examine the assumptions.

Obvious is the most dangerous word in mathematics.

The mistakes and unresolved difficulties of the past in mathematics have always been the opportunities of its future...

The only royal road to elementary geometry is ingenuity.

Even stranger things have happened; and perhaps the strangest of all is the marvel that mathematics should be possible to a race akin to the apes.

It is the perennial youthfulness of mathematics itself which marks it off with a disconcerting immortality from the other sciences.

The very basis of creative work is irreverence! The very basis of creative work is bold experimentation. There has never been a creator of lasting importance who has not also been an innovator.

The longer mathematics lives the more abstract - and therefore, possibly also the more practical - it becomes.

Science makes no pretension to eternal truth or absolute truth.

Man has made remarkable strides in conquering outer space, but how futile have been his efforts in conquering inner space- the space in our hearts and minds of men.

The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook.

In many ways, I'm a big admirer still of Julian Assange. He had balls to do what he did and his motivations in terms of holding the powerful to account are tremendously inspiring to me.

It (broadcast journalism) is a brutal arena where the knives are sharp and the toughest Kevlar vest in the world will not protect you forever.

I love being directed. I always find it helpful to have someone else's brain in the mix and not just have to rely on myself.

The greatest books in Russian literature are satires. Gogol's Dead Souls, for example, is a very over-the-top satire about life in Russia. I think it's the thing we do best.

I don't know if real courage lies in storming barricades or simply not denying the truth.

My wife was a Bond girl, in Diamonds Are Forever, so I play James Bond in real life every day.

I learnt the hard way about positioning in business, about catering to the right segments.

I know what I like when I see it, but no way have I ever become interested in learning about it.