Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of boneheads: ridiculous kings and queens, paranoid political leaders, compulsive voyagers, ignorant generals — the flotsam and jetsam of historical currents. The men who radically altered history, the great scientists and mathematicians, are seldom mentioned, if at all.


From a book review in The New York Times (9 May 1976), also quoted in The American Mathematical Monthly (December 1994)

The New York Times Adventures Of a Mathematician - The man who invented the H-bomb - Article - NYTimes.com

Martin Gardner Quotes

Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of boneheads: ridiculous kings and queens, paranoid political...

Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of boneheads: ridiculous kings and queens, paranoid political...

Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of boneheads: ridiculous kings and queens, paranoid political...

Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of boneheads: ridiculous kings and queens, paranoid political...