9 Quotes & Sayings By John Forbes Nash

John Forbes Nash who has been called, "the most famous mathematician in the world," in his early years in the 1950s. He was also a brilliant and accomplished mathematician who proved to be one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century. He won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994 for his work on game theory. In 1996, he shared a $1.5 million dollar award from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation for his contributions to game theory Read more

His life was turned upside down when he contracted paranoid schizophrenia later in life and spent much of his time confined to mental institutions or undergoing electro-shock therapy. His wife, Alicia, became a world-famous advocate for schizophrenia research and assisted her husband in his quest for a cure.

1
There are things that tend to moderate with age. Schizophrenia is somewhat like that. John Forbes Nash
2
To some extent, people who are insane are nonconformists, and society and their family wish they would live what appear to be useful lives. John Forbes Nash
3
I would not dare to say that there is a direct relation between mathematics and madness, but there is no doubt that great mathematicians suffer from maniacal characteristics, delirium, and symptoms of schizophrenia. John Forbes Nash
4
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. One aspect of this is that rationality of thought imposes a limit on a person's concept of his relation to the cosmos. John Forbes Nash
5
It has had a tremendous impact on my life, more than on the life of most Prize winners, because I was in an unusual situation. I was unemployed at the time. I was in good health, but I had reached the age of 66 and beginning to get social security, but I didn't have much of that. I had many years of unemployment before me. John Forbes Nash
6
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
7
Though I had success in my research both when I was mad and when I was not, eventually I felt that my work would be better respected if I thought and acted like a 'normal' person. John Forbes Nash
8
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