Acknowledgments Lakshmi Kapoor for the first three

"There probably is a God. Many things are easier to explain if there is than if there isn't."

John von Neumann, autodidact who pioneered the modern computer, operator theory, game theory, learned calculus and differential equations at age 6.

"Marxism, Freudianism, global warming. These are proof - of which history offers so many examples - that people can be suckers on a grand scale. To their fanatical followers they are a substitute for religion. Global warming, in particular, is a creed, a faith, a dogma that has little to do with science."

Paul Johnson. I think he's slightly unfair to Freud though the latter, like Marx, wanted to destroy Christianity. However Johnson wasn't very clever.

"In 1924, immigration virtually stopped and the rationale for the new policy was to give newcomers a chance to assimilate—which may or may not have been the main reason—but it probably worked. What has changed my mind about immigration now—even legal immigration—is that our culture has weakened to the point where it's no longer attractive enough for people to want to assimilate to, and we don't insist that they do assimilate. ... That was the culture of the prewar period. You certainly wanted your children to be Americans—real Americans."

Norman Podhoretz, the original Neo-con. Leonard Bernstein, who was 12 years older, grew up wishing he had an 'American name' meaning an English or Scotch one.

All reacti

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