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

Do you know why people like violence? It is because it feels good. Humans find violence deeply satisfying. But remove the satisfaction, and the act becomes hollow.

We are not interested in the fact that the brain has the consistency of cold porridge.

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.

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.

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

From a distance it is something; and nearby it is nothing.

It’s late at night and I can’t sleep.

I love to believe that there’s one god but there’s many different religions so there’s just the question of which long distance company you pick.

If you’ve never stared off into the distance, then your life is a shame.

People tend to keep their distance.

For one who knows me, I am one with him; for one who wants to know me, I am very near to him; and for one who does not know me, I am a beggar before him.

Heaven is equally distant everywhere.

There is an unfathomable distance between us but the bridge is still standing and the streetlight is still on.