John Forbes Nash, Jr. Quotes

American - Mathematician June 13, 1928 - May 23, 2015

In madness, I thought I was the most important person in the world.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

World Thought Important Person

I would not dare to say that there is a direct relation between mathematics and madness, but there is no doubt that great mathematicians suffer from maniacal characteristics, delirium, and symptoms of schizophrenia.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Great Mathematics Madness Doubt

I think mental illness or madness can be an escape also. People don't develop a mental illness because they are in the happiest of situations, usually. One doctor observed that it was rare when people were rich to become schizophrenic. If they were poor or didn't have too much money, then it was more likely.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Money Doctor People Think

You don't have to be a mathematician to have a feel for numbers.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

You Feel Numbers Mathematician

It has had a tremendous impact on my life, more than on the life of most Prize winners, because I was in an unusual situation. I was unemployed at the time. I was in good health, but I had reached the age of 66 and beginning to get social security, but I didn't have much of that. I had many years of unemployment before me.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Life Good Me Time

I can observe the game theory is applied very much in economics. Generally, it would be wise to get into the mathematics as much as seems reasonable because the economists who use more mathematics are somehow more respected than those who use less. That's the trend.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Mathematics Game Wise Economics

As a graduate student I studied mathematics fairly broadly, and I was fortunate enough, besides developing the idea which led to 'Non-Cooperative Games,' also to make a nice discovery relating to manifolds and real algebraic varieties.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Mathematics Enough Nice Student

The dollar used to be a gold standard currency. And the dollar is really good in the last century, I mean in the 19th century.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Good Gold Mean Last

I seem to be thinking rationally again in the style that is characteristic of scientists. However, this is not entirely a matter of joy as if someone returned from physical disability to good physical health.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Good Style Health Thinking

There are things that tend to moderate with age. Schizophrenia is somewhat like that.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Age Things Like Schizophrenia

Top 10
John Forbes Nash, Jr.
Quotes

I never saw my grandfather because he had died before I was born, but I have good memories of my grandmother and of how she could play the piano at the old house.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Good Memories Grandfather Never

Though I had success in my research both when I was mad and when I was not, eventually I felt that my work would be better respected if I thought and acted like a 'normal' person.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Work Success Thought Research

People are always selling the idea that people with mental illness are suffering. I think madness can be an escape. If things are not so good, you maybe want to imagine something better.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Good People You Think

I can see there's a connection between not following normal thinking and doing creative thinking. I wouldn't have had good scientific ideas if I had thought more normally.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Good Creative Thought Thinking

I was the most important person of the world, and people like the Pope would be just like enemies, who would try to put me down in some way or another, or the president. People are always selling the idea that people who have mental illness are suffering.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Me People World Important

I was on the mathematics faculty at M.I.T. from 1951 through until I resigned in the spring of 1959.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Spring Mathematics Through Faculty

I later spent... five to eight months in hospitals in New Jersey, always on an involuntary basis, and always attempting a legal argument for release.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Legal Always New Argument

I did have strange ideas during certain periods of time.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Time Ideas Strange Did

The ideas I had about supernatural beings came to me the same way that my mathematical ideas did. So I took them seriously.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Me Ideas Way Seriously

It is easy to say that there are the rich and the poor, and so something should be done. But in history, there are always the rich and the poor. If the poor were not as poor, we would still call them the poor. I mean, whoever has less can be called the poor. You will always have the 10% that have less and the 10% that have the most.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

History You Rich Done

I seem to be thinking rationally again in the style that is characteristic of scientists. However, this is not entirely a matter of joy, as if someone returned from physical disability to good physical health. One aspect of this is that rationality of thought imposes a limit on a person's concept of his relation to the cosmos.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Good Style Health Thought

If things are not so good, you may be one to imagine something better. For me, I was able to imagine myself as in a role of greater importance than I would seem to be ordinarily.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Good Myself Me You

It's almost as if a demon might have passed from one host to another.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Almost Demon Host Another

I would finally renounce my delusional hypotheses and revert to thinking of myself as a human of more conventional circumstances and return to mathematical research.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Myself Thinking Research More

In a dream it's typical not to be rational.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Dream Rational Typical

I had been offered fellowships to enter as a graduate student at either Harvard or Princeton. But the Princeton fellowship was somewhat more generous, since I had not actually won the Putnam competition... Thus Princeton became the choice for my graduate study location.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Competition Student Choice Study

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