With sixty professors there are roughly eighteen hundred pairs of professors. Out of that many pairs it was not surprising that there were some whose members did not like one another. Stanislaw Ulam More Quotes by Stanislaw Ulam More Quotes From Stanislaw Ulam I am always amazed how much a certain facility with a special and apparently narrow technique can accomplish. Stanislaw Ulam certain technique special Sometimes I feel that a more rational explanation for all that has happened during my lifetime is that I am still only thirteen years old, reading Jules Verne or H. G. Wells, and have fallen asleep. Stanislaw Ulam reading sometimes years Thinking very hard about the same problem for several hours can produce a severe fatigue, close to a breakdown. I never really experienced a breakdown, but have felt "strange inside" two or three times during my life. Stanislaw Ulam three two thinking I was still very hopeful that much work lay ahead of me. Perhaps because much of what I had worked on or thought about had not yet been put into writing, I felt I still had things in reserve. Given this optimistic nature, I feel this way even now when I am past sixty. Stanislaw Ulam optimistic writing past There may be such a thing as habitual luck. People who are said to be lucky at cards probably have certain hidden talents for those games in which skill plays a role. It is like hidden parameters in physics, this ability that does not surface and that I like to call "habitual luck". Stanislaw Ulam skills games play ... there's nothing new under the sun - everything can be traced Stanislaw Ulam nothing-new-under-the-sun nothing-new sun In many cases, mathematics is an escape from reality. The mathematician finds his own monastic niche and happiness in pursuits that are disconnected from external affairs. Some practice it as if using a drug. Stanislaw Ulam mathematical mathematics reality For many years I was the youngest among my mathematical friends. It makes me melancholy to realize that I now have become the oldest in most groups of scientists. Stanislaw Ulam groups realizing years Rota's personality is compatible with mine. Stanislaw Ulam mathematics personality science In mathematics, as in physics, so much depends on chance, on a propitious moment. Stanislaw Ulam physics chance moments Thanks to my memory, which enabled me to quote Latin and to discuss Greek and Roman civilization, it became obvious to some of my colleagues in other fields that I was interested in things outside mathematics. This lead quickly to very pleasant relationships. Stanislaw Ulam latin memories civilization Even the simplest calculation in the purest mathematics can have terrible consequences. Without the invention of the infinitesimal calculus most of our technology would have been impossible. Should we say therefore that calculus is bad? Stanislaw Ulam mathematics technology impossible In its evolution from a more primitive nervous system, the brain, as an organ with ten or more billion neurons and many more connections between them must have changed and grown as a result of many accidents. Stanislaw Ulam neurons connections brain According to recent studies, at least one star out of three is multiple. Stanislaw Ulam three study stars By an incredible coincidence, Gamow and Edward Condon, who had discovered simultaneously and independently the explanation of radioactivity (one in Russia, the other in this country), came to spend the the last ten years of their lives within a hundred yards of each other in Boulder. Stanislaw Ulam russia country years
