Johnny Ball Quotations

Go Figure! A Totally Cool Book About Numbers

When children's minds are open to new ideas and concepts at the age of six, they could be taught the basics of molecular structure, how Oxygen and Hydrogen and Carbon join up to make ever-day substances. By the age of 14, their minds are already doubtful of new ideas which suggest something fundamentally different to what they know, and they can no longer be inspired into exploring science.

Women make such excellent scientists and engineers - because of their passion for learning and will-power to succeed. They out-perform the lads in science all the way through school, but somehow are put off engineering and science at a higher level, and that is so very sad.

There isn't a single windmill owner in Holland who doesn't have a second job, for when there is no wind.

The public impression is that the government, industry or the highest bidder can buy a scientist to add credibility to any message. That crucial quality of impartiality is being lost.

That difficult start drove me on to inspire children and let them know that it is never to late to repair a bad experience at school, and once you get your head down and start to read books, you can really achieve.

There are not the same factual shows anymore - children's TV has become much more trivial.

There isnt a single windmill owner in Holland who doesnt have a second job, for when there is no wind.

If mathematics is to be understood widely, we need to emphasise its elegance and its applications. Sometimes it seems that universities want to emphasise how difficult it is!

Discrimination due to age is one of the great tragedies of modern life. The desire to work and be useful is what makes life worth living, and to be told your efforts are not needed because you are the wrong age is a crime.

The greatest invention of all time is the grid system created by Frenchman Rene Descartes. For a fellow who stayed in bed until lunchtime all his life, Rene didn't do too badly.