John Forbes Nash, Jr. Quotes

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

Profession : Mathematician

Birth : June 13, 1928

I don't think exactly like a professional economist. I think about economics and economic ideas, but somewhat like an outsider.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I went to M.I.T. in the summer of 1951 as a 'C.L.E. Moore Instructor.' I had been an instructor at Princeton for one year after obtaining my degree in 1950. It seemed desirable more for personal and social reasons than academic ones to accept the higher-paying instructorship at M.I.T.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

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.

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

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

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.

I know that if I could really understand mental illness, then it would be appropriate to make a big career shift. I would become a therapist and a leader in terms of mental illness. But I'm not in the position.

John Forbes Nash, Jr.