Philosophical Sayings

The isolated man does not develop any intellectual power. It is necessary for him to be immersed in an environment of other men, whose techniques he absorbs during the first twenty years of his life. He may then perhaps do a little research of his ow…

Mathematical reasoning may be regarded rather schematically as the exercise of a combination of two facilities, which we may call intuition and ingenuity. The activity of the intuition consists in making spontaneous judgements which are not the resul…

The view that machines cannot give rise to surprises is due, I believe, to a fallacy to which philosophers and mathematicians are particularly subject. This is the assumption that as soon as a fact is presented to a mind all consequences of that fact…

We like to believe that Man is in some subtle way superior to the rest of creation. It is best if he can be shown to be necessarily superior, for then there is no danger of him losing his commanding position.

The question, 'Can machines think?' should be replaced by 'Are there imaginable digital computers which would do well in the imitation game?'

I believe that in about fifty years' time it will be possible to programme computers, with a storage capacity of about 10^9, to make them play the imitation game so well that an average interrogator will not have more than 70 per cent. chance of maki…

Programming is a skill best acquired by practice and example rather than from books.

There would be great opposition from the intellectuals who were afraid of being put out of a job. It is probable though that the intellectuals would be mistaken about this. There would be plenty to do, trying to understand what the machines were tryi…

It is possible to invent a single machine which can be used to compute any computable sequence.

One could say that a man can 'inject' an idea into the machine, and that it will respond to a certain extent and then drop into quiescence, like a piano string struck by a hammer. Another simile would be an atomic pile of less than critical size: an …

In the time of Galileo it was argued that the texts, 'And the sun stood still ... and hasted not to go down about a whole day' (Joshua x. 13) and 'He laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not move at any time' (Psalm cv. 5) were an adequa…

The new form of the problem can be described in terms of a game which we call the 'imitation game.' It is played with three people, a man (A), a woman (B), and an interrogator (C) who may be of either sex. The interrogator stays in a room apart from …

A Homeland, A State, A Leader.

Let us be under no illusion. The Jewish spirit, which was responsible for the alliance of large-scale capital with Marxism and was the driving force behind so many anti-Spanish revolutionary agreements, will not be got rid of in a day.

We have the strength of our truth, backed by the reality of our power. We promise a hard life, but a Spanish life worthy of our country and its destiny.

We do not work for ephemeral ends, but for a resplendent tomorrow.

Our paths are strewn with thorns, but there can be no flagging in pursuit of our ideals. It is not enough to set our goal. It must be pursued with constancy and sacrifice. Fortitude, as well as good-will, is needed. When we have all this, the triumph…

Freedom is impossible as long as bondage and want exist.

Cleverly exploited Marxist slogans caught on with the masses because they deceitfully promised a change in the justice of the pressing situation. The liberal world, in giving adult suffrage, made them conscious of their own strength. Then the revolut…

For this reason, because we know that ours is the truth, and because we have labored for it for six years, we look upon events with serenity. In these days our generations are not merely faced with territorial and political problems, but also with su…