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The principle of independent judgments (and decorrelated errors) has immediate applications for the conduct of meetings, an activity in which executives in organizations spend a great deal of their working days. A simple rule can help: before an issue is discussed, all members of the committee should be asked to write a very brief summary of their position. This procedure makes good use of the value of the diversity of knowledge and opinion in the group. The standard practice of open discussion gives too much weight to the opinions of those who speak early and assertively, causing others to line up behind them.

— Thinking, fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman (Page 85)

The general theme of these findings is that the idea of money primes individualism: a reluctance to be involved with others, to depend on others, or to accept demands from others. The psychologist who has done this remarkable research, Kathleen Vohs, has been laudably restrained in discussing the implications of her findings, leaving the task to her readers. Her experiments are profound—her findings suggest that living in a culture that surrounds us with reminders of money may shape our behavior and our attitudes in ways that we do not know about and of which we may not be proud.

— Thinking, fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman (Page 55)

Kreisel once asked Gödel why, since both he and Adele so obviously enjoyed being hospitable and having friends to visit, they did not have people over more often. Gödel replied that he “had noticed that most people showed more excitement in company than they felt, and he found this very tiring.” (“Clearly,” observed Kreisel, “at times he needed very few data to reach, painlessly, a very sound conclusion.”)

— Journey to the Edge of Reason by Stephen Budiansky (Page 215)

He always kept the door of his office at Fine Hall open, and had a running bet with a colleague that if either caught the other working, the guilty party had to pay ten dollars. Von Neumann was never caught.

— Journey to the Edge of Reason by Stephen Budiansky (Page 156)

Princeton undergraduates added a verse to the ever-evolving “Faculty Song”: "Here’s to Veblen, Oswald V., Lover of England and her tea; He built a country club for math, Where you can even take a bath."

— Journey to the Edge of Reason by Stephen Budiansky (Page 151 - 152)

Admitting that “mathematicians, like cows in the dark, all look alike to me,” Flexner tasked Veblen with the job of assembling his blue-ribbon herd.

— Journey to the Edge of Reason by Stephen Budiansky (Page 150)

When the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching commissioned him in 1910 to examine the state of American medical education, he personally visited every one of the 153 medical colleges in the United States and Canada, and found that all but a handful were little more than diploma mills, with no admission standards, no laboratories, no practical training, and no graduation requirements other than handing over a check.

— Journey to the Edge of Reason by Stephen Budiansky (Page 146 - 147)