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"I remember my friend Johnny von Neumann used to say, with four parameters I can fit an elephant, and with five I can make him wiggle his trunk." With that, the conversation was over.

— Freeman Dyson

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More quotes by Freeman Dyson

The laws of nature are constructed in such a way as to make the universe as interesting as possible.

Imagined Worlds (1997)

Like many other crucially important technologies, hay emerged anonymously during the so-called Dark Ages.

Infinite in All Directions (1988)

An awareness of our smallness may help to redeem us from the arrogance which is the besetting sin of the scientists.

Infinite in All Directions (1988)

There is no such thing as a unique scientific vision, any more than there is a unique poetic vision. Science is a mosaic of partial and conflicting visions.

The Scientist As Rebel (2006)

The progress of science requires the growth of understanding in both directions, downward from the whole to the parts and upward from the parts to the whole.

The Scientist As Rebel (2006)

All Freeman Dyson quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Freeman Dyson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.