von Neumann, John (John von Neumann)

There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about.
-- John von Neumann

In mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them.
-- John von Neumann

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.
-- John von Neumann

The most vitally characteristic fact about mathematics is, in my opinion, its quite peculiar relationship to the natural sciences, or more generally, to any science which interprets experience on a higher than purely descriptive level.
-- John von Neumann

Truth is much too complicated to allow anything but approximations.
-- John von Neumann

You insist that there is something that a machine can't do. If you will tell me precisely what it is that a machine cannot do, then I can always make a machine which will do just that.
-- John von Neumann

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 ovserved phenomena. The justification of such a mathematical construct is solely and precisely that it is expected to work.
-- John von Neumann

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