I had very, very little training in taking an exam to determine a scientist's life in France.

- Benoit Mandelbrot

Humanity has known for a long time what fractals are. It is a very strange situation in which an idea which each time I look at all documents have de…

- Benoit Mandelbrot

The existence of these patterns [fractals] challenges us to study forms that Euclid leaves aside as being formless, to investigate the morphology of …

- Benoit Mandelbrot

I spent my time very nicely in many ways, but not fully satisfactory. Then I became Professor in France, but realized that I was not - for the job th…

- Benoit Mandelbrot

Round about the accredited and orderly facts of every science there ever floats a sort of dustcloud of exceptional observations, of occurrences minut…

- Benoit Mandelbrot

I was in an industrial laboratory because academia found me unsuitable

- Benoit Mandelbrot

It was a very big gamble. I lost my job in France, I received a job in which was extremely uncertain, how long would IBM be interested in research, b…

- Benoit Mandelbrot

The extraordinary fact is that the first idea I had which motivated me, that worked, is conjecture, a mathematical idea which may or may not be true.…

- Benoit Mandelbrot

If one takes the kinds of risks which I took, which are colossal, but taking risks, I was rewarded by being able to contribute in a very substantial …

- Benoit Mandelbrot