How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from A Beautiful Mind.
Quote #7
JOHN: It's a problem. That's all it is. It's a problem with no solution. And that's what I do, I solve problems. That's what I do best.
DR. ROSEN: This isn't math. You can't come up with a formula to change the way you experience the world.
JOHN: All I have to do is apply my mind.
DR. ROSEN: There's no theorem, no proof. You can't reason your way out of this.
John is so confident in his own brains that he believes he can solve the problem of his own mental illness without doctors or drugs—you know, just using reason. He's solved all his academic problems this way, so why not his personal ones? Dr. Rosen does not see things the same way, as you might imagine, since John's mind is kind of the whole issue here.
Quote #8
TOBY KELLY: Did you just solve Riemann?
JOHN: Well, what do you think?
With Alicia's help, John manages to get better and gets back to work. Here, a student has noticed him in the Princeton library working on (and apparently coming close to solving) a super difficult problem.
Quote #9
JOHN: My quest has taken me through the physical, the metaphysical, the delusional, and back. And I have made the most important discovery of my career. The most important discovery of my life. It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logical reasons can be found. I'm only here tonight because of you. You are the reason I am. You are all my reasons.
We have to pause here and just marvel at how much John has grown here. Remember that guy who cared only about ideas and not a bit about how he was making others feel? Well, that dude is apparently gone—gone and replaced by a guy who basically says that without love, everything else would be a big flaming trash heap.
Okay, he doesn't say exactly that, but you get the point: he's giving love some big time credit for helping him find meaning in life, and that's a big change from how he starts out.