“If a machine is expected to be infallible, it cannot also be intelligent.”

These disturbing phenomena [Extra Sensory Perception] seem to deny all our scientific ideas. How we should like to discredit them! Unfortunately the statistical evidence, at least for telepathy, is overwhelming.

One day ladies will take their computers for walks in the park and tell each other, “My little computer said such a funny thing this morning”.

Machines take me by surprise with great frequency.

A very large part of space-time must be investigated, if reliable results are to be obtained.

We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.

A man provided with paper, pencil, and rubber, and subject to strict discipline, is in effect a universal machine.

The original question, ‘Can machines think?’ I believe to be too meaningless to deserve discussion.

No, I’m not interested in developing a powerful brain.

We may hope that machines will eventually compete with men in all purely intellectual fields.

Codes are a puzzle. A game, just like any other game.

No, I’m not interested in developing a powerful brain. All I’m after is just a mediocre brain, something like the President of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company.

Programming is a skill best acquired by practice and example rather than from books.

Unless in communicating with it one says exactly what one means, trouble is bound to result.

Mathematical reasoning may be regarded rather schematically as the exercise of a combination of two facilities, which we may call intuition and ingenuity.

The idea behind digital computers may be explained by saying that these machines are intended to carry out any operations which could be done by a human computer.

The Exclusion Principle is laid down purely for the benefit of the electrons themselves, who might be corrupted (and become dragons or demons) if allowed to associate too freely.