"Nash proved himself, in the words of the eminent geometer Mikhail Gromov, 'the most remarkable mathematician of the second half of the century.'" (Prologue, pg. 11-12)

"Princeton in 1948 was to mathematicians what Paris once was to painters and novelists, Vienna to psychoanalysts and architects, and ancient Athens to Philosophers and playwrights. Harald Bohr, brother of Niels Bohr, the physicists, had declared it 'the mathematical center of the universe' in 1936." (Chapter 3, pg. 50)

"Nash was intrigued by the apparent wealth of interesting, unsolved problems. He soon became one of the regulars at the seminar that met Thursdays at five o'clock; before long he was identified as a member of 'Tucker's clique.'" (Chapter 8, pg. 83)

"Von Neumann's rejection of Nash's bid for attention and approval must have hurt, however, and one guesses that it was even more painful that Einstein's earlier but kindlier dismissal." (Chapter 10, pg. 94)

"Neither the prospect of...