Top John Allen Paulos Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

John Allen Paulos Biography

John Allen Paulos

John Allen Paulos (born July 4, 1945) is an American professor of mathematics at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has gained fame as a writer and speaker on mathematics and the importance of mathematical literacy. Paulos writes about many subjects, especially of the dangers of mathematical innumeracy; that is, the layperson's misconceptions about numbers, probability, and logic.

Read about John Allen Paulos in Wikipedia

Random Authors

John Allen Paulos Quotes

In listening to stories we tend to suspend disbelief in order to be entertained, whereas in evaluating statistics we generally have an opposite inclination to suspend belief in order not to be beguiled.

Inclination, Listening, Opposite, Opposites, Order, Tend

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].

Difference, Differences, Know, Men, Science, Statement

A German merchant of the fifteenth century asked an eminent professor where he should send his son for a good business education. The professor responded that German universities would be sufficient to teach the boy addition and subtraction but he would have to go to Italy to learn multiplication and division. Before you smile indulgently, try multiplying or even just adding the Roman numerals CCLXIV, MDCCCIX, DCL, and MLXXXI without first translating them.

Asked, Boys, German, Mdcccix, Roman Numerals, Son

One must give up the fantasy of a perspicacious gunslinger
investor outwitting the market.

Fantasy, Giving Up, Market, Outwitting, Perspicacious

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

Inspirational, Life, Success, Certainty, Security, Insecurity

There is something inhuman and vaguely pornographic about statistics. . . Pornography, on the other hand, with its loosely bound sequences of storyless sexual couplings often has the feel of a statistical survey.

Hands, Inhuman, Loosely, Science, Sequences, Statistics

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

Book, Floor, Largest, Library, World

Uncertainty would be the only certainty there's, and realizing how to stay with insecurity could be the only protection

Certainty, Insecurity, Realizing, Stay, Uncertainty, Would Be

So many see themselves as aggrieved; so few see themselves as aggrievers.

Aggrieved, Aggrievers, See

The simple equations that generate the convoluted Mandelbrot fractal have been called the wittiest remarks ever made.

Equations, Generate, Made, Mathematics, Remarks, Simple

I used to be surprised and even depressed when I met someone I had admired and discovered him or her to be a jerk or, perhaps worse, rather common. Now I half expect this reaction and even find it a little reassuring, maybe even uplifting. Isn't it amazing that somebody like that could produce such and such.

Admired, Half, Reaction, Science, Somebody, Uplifting

When asked why he doesn't believe in astrology, the logician Raymond Smullyan responds that he's a Gemini and Geminis never believe in astrology.

Astrology, Believe, Logician, Raymond, Responds

Innumeracy and pseudoscience are often associated, in part because of the ease with which mathematical certainty can be invoked, to bludgeon the innumerate into a dumb acquiescence.

Acquiescence, Associated, Dumb, Invoked, Part, Pseudoscience

I think, therefore I laugh.

Education, Knowledge, Laugh, Math, Think

We ourselves are co-called non-linear dynamical systems. . . I don't feel quite so pathetic when I interrupt a project to check on some obscure web site or newsgroup or derive an iota of cheer by getting rid of pocketful of change.

Cheer, Derive, Obscure, Pathetic, Quite, Science

In the stock market. . . You can be right for the wrong reasons or wrong for the right reasons.

Reason, Reasons, Right, Stock, Wrong, Wrong Reasons