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John Allen Paulos Quotes

born 1945 United States

John Allen Paulos (born July 4, 1945) is an American professor of mathematics at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is a prominent figure as a writer and speaker on mathematics and the importance of mathematical literacy.

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Random John Allen Paulos quote

43 quotes

If we’re not keenly aware of the choices we’re making, we’re not likely to work for better ones.

Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences (1988)

Rigid distinctions between the deep and the shallow are generally themselves quite superficial.

A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (1995)

Almost any bunkum has some partial validity, and we regularly read into the confusing mess what we want to see.

A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (1995)

Confirmation of a person’s unreliable statement by another unreliable person makes the statement even less reliable.

Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don’t Add Up (2008)

There is a fine line between public expressions of faith and aggressive declarations thereof, and religious tolerance is inversely proportional to the latter.

A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (1995)

Bad things happen periodically, and they’re going to happen to somebody. Why not you?

Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences (1988)

Our two most basic political ideals—liberty and equality—are, in their purest forms, incompatible. Complete liberty results in inequality, and mandatory equality leads to a loss of liberty.

A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (1995)

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don’t Add Up (2008)

I remember thinking of mathematics as a kind of omnipotent protector. You could prove things to people and they would have to believe you whether they liked you or not.

Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences (1988)

When the law’s on your side, pound the law. When the facts are on your side, pound the facts. And when neither is on your side, pound the table.

A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (1995)

One can and should debate whether the tests in question are appropriate for the purposes at hand, but one shouldn’t be surprised when normal curves behave normally.

A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (1995)

It’s always healthy to recognize facts.

Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don’t Add Up (2008)

Always be smart; seldom be certain.

A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (1995)

Having been involved in a couple of lawsuits as an expert probability witness and having observed that a prudent skepticism is often less prized than an indefensible certainty, I turned down preliminary requests from both sides to testify.

A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (1995)

For the record, natural selection is a highly nonrandom process that acts on the genetic variation produced by random mutation and genetic drift and results in those organisms with more adaptive traits differentially surviving and reproducing.

Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don’t Add Up (2008)

It’s time to let the secret out: mathematics is not primarily a matter of plugging numbers into formulas and performing rote computations. It is a way of thinking and questioning that may be unfamiliar to many of us, but is available to almost all of us.

A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (1995)

All art, in fact, has these two aspects: its content and its frame (or setting), which sets it apart from nonart and which says of itself, “This is not an everyday sort of communication. This is unreal.”

Mathematics and Humor: A Study of the Logic of Humor (1980)

While not a panacea, candidly recognizing the absence of any good logical arguments for God’s existence, giving up on divine allies and advocates as well as taskmasters and tormentors, and prizing a humane, reasonable, and brave outlook just might help move this world a bit closer to a heaven on earth.

Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don’t Add Up (2008)

The necessity of this psychic stepping back (or up) to the metalevel is probably what is meant when people say that a sense of perspective is needed for an appreciation of humor. It also explains why dogmatists, idealogues, and others with one-track minds are often notoriously humorless.

Mathematics and Humor: A Study of the Logic of Humor (1980)

The universe acts on us, we adapt to it, and the notions that we develop as a result, including the mathematical ones, are in a sense taught us by the universe. Evolution has selected those of our ancestors (both human and not) whose behavior and thought were consistent with the workings of the universe.

Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don’t Add Up (2008)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: John Allen Paulos (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.