"On a new derivation of Birkhoff's strong ergodic hypothesis he once remarked in exasperation: "To be any more immacul…"

"... he gave a seminar in Oxford about his ideas on liquid helium, but on this occasion even the theorists were baffle…"

"Of the electroencephalogram he once remarked: "It is like trying to discover how the telephone system works by measur…"

"There's a time to soar like an eagle and a time to burrow like a worm. It takes a pretty sharp cookie to know when to…"

"There are a lot of folks, some quite talented, who arm themselves with methods and then go hunting for vulnerable pro…"

"They made the mistake there of assigning Onsager to the basic Chemistry I, II course. He just couldn't think at the l…"

"In the days of Kepler and Galileo, it was fashionable to announce a new scientific result through the circulation of …"

"... a reluctance to publish anything except fully-polished work, combined with the habit of dropping valuable hints c…"

"He had been warned that non-theoreticians would be present and that he should phrase his talk in not too technical la…"

"Onsager regarded chess, so he said, as too much like real problem-solving to spend much time on it. When he wanted to…"