How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from A Beautiful Mind.
Quote #1
JOHN: Well, Martin Hansen. It is Martin, isn't it?
HANSEN: Why, yes, John, it is.
JOHN: I imagine you're getting quite used to miscalculation. I've read your pre-prints, both of them, one on Nazi ciphers, and the other one on non-linear equations, and I am supremely confident that there is not a single seminal or innovative idea in either one of them. Enjoy your punch.
John does not hold back with his assessments, and he tells his big competition in his grad program, Hansen, exactly what he thinks of his work. Ouch.
Quote #2
HANSEN: Gentlemen, meet John Nash, the mysterious West Virginia genius. The other winner of the distinguished Carnegie Scholarship.
Yup, that's right, our main character is a super genius. Sure, he's pretty awkward, and doesn't seem to know how to interact with other people without insulting them half the time, but he's a genius at academic stuff.
Quote #3
CHARLES: Seriously, John, mathematics…mathematics is never going to lead you to a higher truth. And you know why? Because it's boring. It's really boring.
JOHN: You know half these schoolboys are already published? I cannot waste time with these classes and these books, memorizing the weaker assumptions of lesser mortals! I need to look through to the governing dynamics, find a truly original idea. That's the only way I'll ever distinguish myself. It's the only way that I'll ever…
CHARLES: …matter.
JOHN: Yes.
John is pretty committed to his studies, but that doesn't mean he's interested in going to class. In fact, he thinks of coursework as a distraction from looking for the one big idea that will set the mathematical world on fire. His professors are less than impressed. Well, until he ends up coming up with that big idea, and then all is forgiven. But that takes a little while.