“There's no system foolproof enough to defeat a sufficiently great fool.”
As quoted in "Nuclear Reactions", by Joel Davis in Omni (May 1988)
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Edward Teller 32
Hungarian-American nuclear physicist 1908–2003Related quotes
Source: Mathematicians are useful (1971), p. 1: Machol explains his definition of systems engineering.

“Prefer to be defeated in the presence of the wise than to excel among fools.”

[“Loving Your Enemies,” Sermon Delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, King, Jr., Martin Luther, 1957-11-17, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/loving-your-enemies-sermon-delivered-dexter-avenue-baptist-church, http://www.webcitation.org/6x5ROMlxu, 2018-02-08]
1950s, Loving Your Enemies (November 1957)

“Life had already given him sufficient reasons for knowing that no defeat was the final one.”
Source: The General in His Labyrinth

Pg 48
Against Method (1975)
Context: Progress was often achieved by a "criticism from the past"… After Aristotle and Ptolemy, the idea that the earth moves - that strange, ancient, and "entirely ridiculous", Pythagorean view was thrown on the rubbish heap of history, only to be revived by Copernicus and to be forged by him into a weapon for the defeat of its defeaters. The Hermetic writings played an important part in this revival, which is still not sufficiently understood, and they were studied with care by the great Newton himself. Such developments are not surprising. No idea is ever examined in all its ramifications and no view is ever given all the chances it deserves. Theories are abandoned and superseded by more fashionable accounts long before they have had an opportunity to show their virtues. Besides, ancient doctrines and "primitive" myths appear strange and nonsensical only because their scientific content is either not known, or is distorted by philologists or anthropologists unfamiliar with the simplest physical, medical or astronomical knowledge.
Source: Computer Science as Empirical Inquiry: Symbols and Search (1975), p. 116. This is also called the Church–Turing thesis.