Norbert Wiener Quotes

The mechanical brain does not secrete thought "as the liver does bile," as the earlier materialists claimed, nor does it put it out in the form of energy, as the muscle puts out its activity. Information is information, not matter or energy. No materialism which does not admit this can survive at the present day. ~ Norbert Wiener

The science of control and communication in the animal and the machine ~ Norbert Wiener

Mathematics is a field which has often been compared with chess, but differs from the latter in that it is only one's best moments that count and not one's worst. ~ Norbert Wiener

We are swimming upstream against a great torrent of disorganization ... In this, our main obligation is to establish arbitrary enclaves of order and system ... It is the greatest possible victory to be, to continue to be, and to have been. No defeat can deprive us of the success of having existed for some moment of time in a universe that seems indifferent to us.
This is no defeatism ... The declaration of our own nature and the attempt to build up an enclave of organization in the face of nature's overwhelming tendency to disorder is an insolence against the gods and the iron necessity that they impose. Here lies tragedy, but here lies glory too ...
All this represents the manner in which I believe I have been able to add something positive to the pessimism of ... the existensialists. I have not replaced the gloom of existence by a philosophy which is optimistic in any Pollyanna sense, but ... with a positive attitude toward the universe and toward our life in it. ~ Norbert Wiener

If the human being is condemned and restricted to perform the same functions over and over again, he will not even be a good ant, not to mention a good human being. ~ Norbert Wiener

Any use of a human being in which less is demanded of him and less is attributed to him than his full status is a degradation and a waste. ~ Norbert Wiener

I have said that science is impossible without faith ... Inductive logic, the logic of Bacon, is rather something on which we can act than something which we can prove, and to act on it is a supreme assertion of faith ... Science is a way of life which can only fluorish when men are free to have faith. ~ Norbert Wiener

It is easy to make a simple machine which will run toward the light or run away from it, and if such machines also contain lights of their own, a number of them together will show complicated forms of social behavior ... ~ Norbert Wiener

The modern physicist is a quantum theorist on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and a student of gravitational relativity on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. On Sunday, he is praying ... that someone will find the reconciliation between the two views. ~ Norbert Wiener

Our tissues change as we live: the food we eat and the air we breathe become flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone, and the momentary elements of our flesh and bone pass out of our body every day with our excreta. We are but whirlpools in a river of ever-flowing water. We are not stuff that abides, but patterns that perpetuate themselves ~ Norbert Wiener

Had Martha Foley returned William [James Sidis]'s passion as Margaret [Engemann] did Norbert [Wiener]'s, perhaps the two prodigies would have had more in common in the long run. ... In the life of a prodigy, perhaps more than in the average life, a marriage or a requited love is the greatest single factor that can heal the old childhood wounds. William and Norbert's response to their childhood and teenage rejections and humiliations was to retreat into the painless world of ideas, where successes and satisfactions abounded. A successful love affair could be the key to reentry into the world of feeling, bridging the gap between the cerebral and the emotional lives. ~ Amy Wallace

In all important respects, the man who has nothing but his physical power to sell has nothing to sell which it is worth anyone's money to buy ~ Norbert Wiener

A painter like Picasso, who runs through many periods and phases, ends up by saying all those things which are on the tip of the tongue of the age to say, and finally sterilizes the originality of his contemporaries and juniors. ~ Norbert Wiener

What sometimes enrages me and always disappoints and grieves me is the preference of great schools of learning for the derivative as opposed to the original, for the conventional and thin which can be duplicated in many copies rather than the new and powerful, and for arid correctness and limitation of scope and method rather than for universal newness and beauty, wherever it may be seen. ~ Norbert Wiener

Just as entropy is a measure of disorganization, the information carried by a set of messages is a measure of organization. In fact, it is possible to interpret the information carried by a message as essentially the negative of its entropy, and the negative logarithm of its probability. That is, the more probable the message, the less information it gives. Cliches, for example, are less illuminating than great poems. ~ Norbert Wiener

The sense of tragedy is that the world is not a pleasant little nest made for our protection, but a vast and largely hostile environment, in which we can achieve great things only by defying the gods; and that this defiance inevitably brings its own punishment. ~ Norbert Wiener

A professor is one who can speak on any subject - for precisely fifty minutes. ~ Norbert Wiener

I may remark parenthetically that the modern apparatus of the theory of small samples, once it goes beyond the determination of its own specially defined parameters and becomes a method for positive statistical inference in new cases, does not inspire me with any confidence unless it is applied by a statistician by whom the main elements of the dynamics of the situation are either explicitly known or implicitly felt. ~ Norbert Wiener

It is possible to believe in progress as a fact without believing in progress as an ethical principle; but in the catechism of many Americans, the one goes with the other. ~ Norbert Wiener

The simple faith in progress is not a conviction belonging to strength, but one belonging to acquiescence and hence to weakness. ~ Norbert Wiener

One of the chief duties of the mathematician in acting as an advisor ... is to discourage ... from expecting too much from mathematics. ~ Norbert Wiener

The automatic machine, whatever we thinkof any feelings it may or may not have, is the precise economic equivalent of the slave. ~ Norbert Wiener

Information is information, not matter or energy. ~ Norbert Wiener

Any useful logic must concern itself with Ideas with a fringe of vagueness and a Truth that is a matter of degree. ~ Norbert Wiener

Progress imposes not only new possibilities for the future but new restrictions. ~ Norbert Wiener

As to the inventions of printing and of paper, we generally consider these in the wrong oredr, attributing too much importnace to printing and too little to paper. ~ Norbert Wiener

Mathematics, which most of us see as the most factual of all sciences, constitutes the most colossal metaphor imaginable, and must be judged, aesthetically as well as intellectually in terms of the success of this metaphor. ~ Norbert Wiener

We are in the position of the man who has only two ambitions in life. One is to invent the universal solvent which will dissolve any solid substance, and the second is to invent the universal container which will hold any liquid. Whatever this inventor does, he will be frustrated. ~ Norbert Wiener

Communication engineering began with Gauss, Wheatstone, and the first telegraphers. ~ Norbert Wiener

A significant idea of organization cannot be obtained in a world in which everything is necessary and nothing is contingent ~ Norbert Wiener

Let us remember that the automatic machine is the precise economic equivalent of slave labor. Any labor which competes with slave labor must accept the economic consequences of slave labor. ~ Norbert Wiener

The advantage is that mathematics is a field in which one's blunders tend to show very clearly and can be corrected or erased with a stroke of the pencil. ~ Norbert Wiener

The idea that information can be stored in a changing world without an overwhelming depreciation of its value is false. It is scarcely less false than the more plausible claim that after a war we may take our existing weapons, fill their barrels with information. ~ Norbert Wiener

Until we in the community have made up our minds that what we really want is expiation, or removal, or reform, or or the discouragement of potential criminals, we shall get none of these, but only a confusion in which crime breeds more crime. ~ Norbert Wiener

Science is better paid than at any time in the past. The results of this pay have been to attract into science many of those for whom the pay is the first consideration, and who scorn to sacrifice immediate profit for the freedom of development of their own concept. Moreover, this inner development, important and indispensable as it may be to the world of science in the future, generally does not have the tendency to put a single cent into the pockets of their employers. ~ Norbert Wiener

The best material model of a cat is another, or preferably the same, cat. ~ Norbert Wiener

The future science of government should be called 'la cybernétique' (1843)

{Coining the French word to mean 'the art of governing,' from the Greek (Kybernetes = navigator or steersman), subsequently adopted as cybernetics by Norbert Wiener for the field of control and communication theory.} ~ Andre Marie Ampere

Any labor which competes with slave labor must accept the economic conditions of slave labor. ~ Norbert Wiener

The world of the future will be an even more demanding struggle against the limitations of our intelligence, not a comfortable hammock in which we can lie down to be waited upon by our robot slaves. ~ Norbert Wiener

The more we get out of the world the less we leave, and in the long run we shall have to pay our debts at a time that may be very inconvenient for our own survival. ~ Norbert Wiener

In a very real sense, we are shipwrecked passengers on a doomed planet. Yet, even in a shipwreck, human decencies and human values do not necessarily vanish, and we must make the most of them. We shall go down, but let it be in a manner to which we may look forward as worthy of our dignity. ~ Norbert Wiener

There are no answers, only cross references ~ Norbert Wiener

What most experimenters take for granted before they begin their experiments is infinitely more interesting than any results to which their experiments lead. ~ Norbert Wiener

I like to think of my best moment on the job as quiet victories. Victories over what? Over the "system", over the various bureaucracies not watching me, over my colleagues' indifference, over my patron's ignorance, over the very concept of horn-blowing pride. ~ Paul Lester Wiener

And how do you know he has a big dick? You've seen him once. And it was a five-second 'Oh, that's my boss, Kline' conversation while we were walking across the parking lot. You haven't even met him in person."

"Five seconds is all I need." She tapped the side of her head. "You know my cockdar is off the chain. I can sense a giant swinging penis pendulum from at least ten miles away. It's a God-given talent, Georgie."

I choked on my wine. "Let's not bring God into this."

She raised an eyebrow. "God knows the G-spot needs a more than adequate-sized wiener to get the job done."

"I'm pretty sure that comment just got you wait-listed for heaven. ~ Max Monroe

Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do, watcha gonna do when they cut your wiener," Gavin sang as he pointed his gun at random objects.
"Wow, cops have gotten pretty hardcore lately" Carter muttered. ~ Tara Sivec

We are all of the same substance, the same life. Though there are many differences between us, those are merely the shadows that delineate our boundaries. Our light is the same. ~ Sally Wiener Grotta

Death is a problem of the living. Dead people have no problems. ~ Norbert Elias

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the most sweeping civil rights legislation of its day, and included women's rights as part of its reforms. Ironically, the section on women's rights was added by a senator from Virginia who opposed the whole thing and was said to be sure that if he stuck something about womens' rights into it, it would never pass. The bill passed anyway, though, much to the chagrin of a certain wiener from Virginia. ~ Adam Selzer

But few have spoken of the actual pleasure derived from giving to someone, from creating something, from finishing a task, form offering unexpected help almost invisibly and anonymously. ~ Paul Lester Wiener

In a threesome, there are always two exhibitionists and a voyeur. ~ Gabriela Wiener

There were certainly those who rubbed their eyes in astonishment. But when we held a company discussion forum with Joschka Fischer, interest was high. Six hundred senior managers came to the meeting. In the end, there was tremendous applause for Fischer, because he offered a precise analysis of the challenges our industry faces worldwide. ~ Norbert Reithofer

After three or four hours of chomping and chewing, Norbert realised that he was very thirsty. ~ James Sutherland

You will never enjoy the sweetness of a quiet prayer unless you shut your mind to all worldly desires and temporal affairs. ~ Norbert Of Xanten

She's aggressive and grabs my wiener, though, I may have to come up with another plan. ~ Craig Lancaster

We have decided to call the entire field of control and communications theory, whether in the machine or in the animal, Cybernetics. ~ Norman Wiener

How's Norbert doin'?"
Norbert?" Charlie laughed. "The Norwegian Ridgeback? We call her Norberta now."
Wha - Norbert's a girl? ~ J.K. Rowling

Poe, you wiener, get your ass over here!"
"Shut Up! I ain't a wiener!"
Broken, adolescent male laughter echoed through the night air, and if I hadn't been so damned mad, I'd have laughed too. Something about hearing a group of idiotic pubescent fifteen-year-old boys say wiener just cracked me up. ~ Elle Jasper

For Wiener, entropy was a measure of disorder; for Shannon, of uncertainty. Fundamentally, as they were realizing, these were the same. ~ James Gleick

Please try not to be such a wiener-head. ~ Dave Barry

Like books, artists have their fates. ~ Norbert Lynton

I make decisions quickly. ~ Norbert Leo Butz

Being the only woman on a nontechnical team, providing customer support to software developers, was like immersion therapy for internalized misogyny. I liked men - I had a brother. I had a boyfriend. But men were everywhere: the customers, my teammates, my boss, his boss. I was always fixing things for them, tiptoeing around their vanities, cheering them up. Affirming, dodging, confiding, collaborating. Advocating for their career advancement; ordering them pizza. My job had placed me, a self-identified feminist, in a position of ceaseless, professionalized deference to the male ego. ~ Anna Wiener

What do we expect from criticism? People appear to want it, but why? ~ Norbert Lynton

My impulse, over the past few years, had been to remove myself from my own life, to watch from the periphery and try to see the vectors, the scaffolding, the systems at play. Psychologists might refer to this as dissociation; I considered it the sociological approach. It was, for me, a way out of unhappiness. ~ Anna Wiener

Some critics claim to know what art has to be and do, and consider it their task to steer art along the path they have chosen. Others receive art gladly, and try to distinguish degrees of excellence ... ~ Norbert Lynton

I enjoyed the freedom they gave me - to write about almost any damned thing that came into my mind, whether it was crime, science fiction, western, fantasy or sports. ~ Norbert Davis

We talked about our IPO like it was dues ex machina coming down from high to save us ~ Anna Wiener

Heroes like you always have a weak spot. We just have to find it, and then we can kill you. Won't that be lovely? Have a cheese 'n' Wiener! ~ Rick Riordan

In the play we have the messy he-loves-her, she-loves-him, she-loves-him-too structure, and, to add even more confusion to the mix, the real love story is between the two ladies. ~ Norbert Leo Butz

I hate sitting around a table and talking about what a play might mean. I'm the person who's always like, 'Can we get up on our feet and just do it?' ~ Norbert Leo Butz

Moving to another city is to change the accent of your affections. ~ Gabriela Wiener

I know it hurts. But, girl, right now you need to see how much better you can do than Becker with a small pecker."
I crack and can't hold back the tiny smile. "He does have a small wiener."
"See? And you would've been stuck with that for the rest of your life! There are so many better guys out there. Guys who come packing. ~ Angeline Kace

Duroy, who felt light hearted that evening, said with a smile: "You are gloomy to-day, dear master."
The poet replied: "I am always so, young man, so will you be in a few years. Life is a hill. As long as one is climbing up one looks towards the summit and is happy, but when one reaches the top one suddenly perceives the descent before one, and its bottom, which is death. One climbs up slowly, but one goes down quickly. At your age a man is happy. He hopes for many things, which, by the way, never come to pass. At mine, one no longer expects anything - but death."
Duroy began to laugh: "You make me shudder all over."
Norbert de Varenne went on: "No, you do not understand me now, but later on you will remember what I am saying to you at this moment. A day comes, and it comes early for many, when there is an end to mirth, for behind everything one looks at one sees death. You do not even understand the word. At your age it means nothing; at mine it is terrible. Yes, one understands it all at once, one does not know how or why, and then everything in life changes its aspect. For fifteen years I have felt death assail me as if I bore within me some gnawing beast. I have felt myself decaying little by little, month by month, hour by hour, like a house crumbling to ruin. Death has disfigured me so completely that I do not recognize myself. I have no longer anything about me of myself - of the fresh, strong man I was at thirty. I have seen death whiten my black hair ~ Guy De Maupassant

If you individualize an audience, it helps up the stakes of your responsibility to that audience. ~ Norbert Leo Butz

Joschka Fischer was a Green Party politician and Germany's foreign minister. We hired Mr. Fischer, as well as former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, as advisors because we, as an automaker, want to know, for example, how new emissions laws will develop in the United States, Europe and Asia. Fischer and Ms. Albright have diverse contacts worldwide. They can call our attention to trends early on, information from which we can benefit. ~ Norbert Reithofer

If you, as CEO, have recognized an approach as being the right one, you have to pursue it consistently, even if some people disagree. But it is now clear to everyone that we, as an automaker, have no alternative but to take [environmental protection] course. ~ Norbert Reithofer

And at this very moment, like a miracle, the rail-bus appeared. We waved our arms frantically, hardly daring to hope that it would stop. It did stop. We scrambled thankfully on board.
That is the irony of travel. You spend your boyhood dreaming of a magic, impossibly distant day when you will cross the Equator, when your eyes will behold Quito. And then, in the slow prosaic process of life, that day undramatically dawns - and finds you sleepy, hungry and dull. The Equator is just another valley; you aren't sure which and you don't much care. Quito is just another railroad station, with fuss about baggage and taxis and tips. And the only comforting reality, amidst all this picturesque noisy strangeness, is to find a clean pension run by Czech refugees and sit down in a cozy Central European parlor to a lunch of well-cooked Wiener Schnitzel. ~ Christopher Isherwood

I felt rising frustration and resentment. I was frustrated because I felt stuck, and I was resentful because I was stuck in an industry that was chipping away at so many things I cared about. ~ Anna Wiener

I did not want to be an ingrate, but I had trouble seeing why writing support emails for a venture-funded startup should offer more economic stability and reward than creative work or civic contributions. ~ Anna Wiener

And then I remember this morning and I wonder if it really happened or if I dreamed it. It was nice. And weird. And tender. I'm not used to tender. It's a fossil, that word. Conditions changed and it died out. Like the woolly mammoth. It just couldn't live in the same world as dick box. Ho dog. Or wiener cousins. ~ Jennifer Donnelly

Scientific modes of thought cannot be developed and become generally accepted unless people renounce their primary, unreflecting, and spontaneous attempt to understand all their experience in terms of its purpose and meaning for themselves. The development that led to more adequate knowledge and increasing control of nature was therefore, considered from one aspect, also a development toward greater self-control by men. ~ Norbert Elias

Why did it feel so taboo, I asked, to approach work the way most people did, as a trade of my time and labor for money? Why did we have to pretend it was all so fun?

Leah nodded, curls bobbing. 'That's real,' she said. 'But I wonder if you're forcing things. Your job can be in service of the rest of your life. ~ Anna Wiener

It's thrilling to be onstage and to not know, literally, what the next moment is going to bring. To just submit to the not-knowing-ness of it. ~ Norbert Leo Butz

And that better be the only wiener you put in your mouth. We do not give blow jobs so that boys will like us! Claire roars, and Connor nearly chokes on his beer ~ Jessica Spotswood