John von Neumann — "As far as I'm concerned, the two most important things in life are mathematics a…"
As far as I'm concerned, the two most important things in life are mathematics and sex.
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More from John von Neumann
"I would like to make a confession which may seem immoral: I do not believe absolutely in Hilbert space any more."
"The world is so complicated that it cannot be described in any other way than by itself."
"The computer is a universal machine. It can do anything that can be described algorithmically."
"The atomic bomb is a great invention. It is also a great danger."
"The world is not as simple as we would like it to be."
Details
Reported by several biographers as a personal, informal remark.
Date: 1940s-1950s
Life & AgingVerification
Unverifiable
Found in 1 providers: grok
1 source checked
Understanding this quote
What it means
A witty ranking of life's essentials: pure abstract reasoning alongside raw biological desire. Von Neumann places intellectual pursuit and primal drive on equal footing, suggesting that what makes existence meaningful operates at opposite poles — the cerebral and the carnal. The humor lies in the casual confidence of the claim. He's not being provocative for shock value; he's being bluntly honest about what drives human energy and ambition at its deepest level.
Relevance to John von Neumann
Von Neumann's mathematical brilliance was legendary — he contributed foundational work to quantum mechanics, game theory, and computer architecture while reportedly solving problems in his head mid-conversation at parties. But he was equally known for his love of socializing, rich food, fast cars, and general hedonism. This quote captures his dual nature perfectly: the man who held the universe's mathematics in his mind also lived with enormous physical appetite and personal intensity.
The era
Von Neumann worked during the Manhattan Project and the Cold War's opening years — an era of unprecedented scientific power and geopolitical anxiety. The mid-20th century saw mathematics move from academic abstraction to civilization-shaping force: nuclear deterrence, early computing, game-theoretic strategy. Scientists were cultural figures operating under enormous intellectual pressure. Against this backdrop of world-altering cerebral work, his breezy equation of intellect with bodily pleasure reads as both comic relief and genuine life philosophy.
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