Roger Penrose Quotes

The important thing to remember about mathematics is not to be frightened

I don't look at a problem and put variables in there that don't affect it.

The principle of Sturgeon's Razor states that the simplest answer to any problem is 90% crap.

My favourite subjects at school were algebra and logic: making a big problem into something small.

I tell my students to try to know molecules, so well that when they have some question involving molecules, they can ask themselves, What would I do if I were that molecule?

When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.

Never bring the problem solving stage into the decision making stage. Otherwise, you surrender yourself to the problem rather than the solution.

I like to have fulsome discussions on every topic. What happens if you lose this show? What would you do? We have to look at every hypothesis.

Learning to fly an airplane taught me a way of thinking, an approach to problem-solving that was applicable and effective. Pilots are very methodical and meticulous, and artists tend not to be.

I don't care much for equations myself. This is partly because it is difficult for me to write them down, but mainly because I don't have an intuitive feeling for equations.

If I can bring some light to bear on problems like that, I feel that people will be enlightened not only on the question but also on a way of approaching such questions.

The problems of puzzles are very near the problems of life.

The mark, to me, of a constructive argument is one that looks at a specific problem and says, 'What shall we do about this?' And a nonconstructive one is one that tries to label people.

Thinking - in particular abstract thinking, which most of us are introduced to through the study of mathematics and literature - helps us learn that we can become problem solvers.

We mostly feel fearful because we feel powerless. We feel powerless, I contend, because of a style of thinking that splits information in two poles that makes us lose all the operative information we need to solve the problem.

I found maths very easy, but I still enjoyed discovering things. You have to have the necessary information. For example, what's the difference between the mean and the median? Probability fascinated me. You have to think very carefully about things, which is the way my mind works anyway.

I like to think that since I was about 19, I have studied human decision-making and problem-solving.

My mom was a problem solver.

If you don’t understand how problems came to be, how are you going to know how to fix them?

We're always looking for candidates that have new approaches to problems.

I have been an editor at Commentary for a number of years and the thing that we all agree about is that we are much better at identifying problems than at solving them.

An ounce of algebra is worth of a ton of verbal argument.

There are ways that women absorb situations, and I think women are different kinds of listeners. They're different in terms of how they parse out problem solving.

Kids need time for problem solving, critical thinking, applying knowledge through project-based instruction, working in teams, falling down and getting right back up to figure out what they didn't understand and why.

Lots of people ask me for advice as if I somehow have found some easy way to create a solution to a problem, and there's no such thing.