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Richard P. Feynman Quotes - Page 10

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The Quantum Universe has a quotation from me in every chapter - but it's a damn good book anyway.

The Quantum Universe has a quotation from me in every chapter - but it's a damn good book anyway.

Richard P. Feynman
Book, Quantum, Chapters
"The New Quantum Universe". Book by Anthony J. G. Hey, ‎Tony Hey, ‎Patrick Walters, 1987.

When a scientist doesn't know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty darn sure of what the result is going to be, he is in some doubt.

Richard P. Feynman
Doubt, Ignorant, Answers
Richard P. Feynman (2011). “"What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character”, p.263, W. W. Norton & Company

To guess what to keep and what to throw away takes considerable skill. Actually it is probably merely a matter of luck, but it looks as if it takes considerable skill.

Richard P. Feynman
Science, Skills, Luck

Once we were driving in the midwest and we pulled into a McDonald's. Someone came up to me and asked me why I have Feynman diagrams all over my van. I replied, "Because I am Feynman!" The young man went, "Ahhhhh!"

Richard P. Feynman
Men, Mcdonalds, Atheism

A poet once said, "The whole universe is in a glass of wine." We will probably never know in what sense he meant that, for poets do not write to be understood... How vivid is the claret, pressing its existence into the consciousness that watches it! If our small minds, for some convenience, divide this glass of wine, this universe, into parts - physics, biology, geology, astronomy, psychology, and so on - remember that nature does not know it! So let us put it all back together, not forgetting ultimately what it is for. Let it give us one more final pleasure: drink it and forget it all!

Richard P. Feynman
Writing, Wine, Glasses
"The Feynman Lectures on Physics (volume I; lecture 3: "The Relation of Physics to Other Sciences")". Book by Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton and Matthew Sands, 1964.

The fundamental principle of science, the definition almost, is this: the sole test of the validity of any idea is experiment.

Richard P. Feynman
Ideas, Principles, Fundamentals

But see that the imagination of nature is far, far greater than the imagination of man.

Richard P. Feynman
Nature, Men, Imagination
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.85, Princeton University Press

There are all kinds of interesting questions that come from a knowledge of science, which only adds to the excitement and mystery and awe of a flower.

Richard P. Feynman
Flower, Interesting, Add
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.54, Princeton University Press

(Joan,1941) She wrote me a letter asking,"How can I read it?,Its so hard." I told her to start at the beginning and read as far as you can get until you're lost. Then start again at the beginning and keep working through until you can understand the whole book. And thats what she did

Richard P. Feynman
Book, Asking, Letters

You should not fool the laymen when you're talking as a scientist... . I'm talking about a specific, extra type of integrity that is not lying, but bending over backwards to show how you're maybe wrong, [an integrity] that you ought to have when acting as a scientist. And this is our responsibility as scientists, certainly to other scientists, and I think to laymen.

Richard P. Feynman
Integrity, Lying, Responsibility

I love only nature, and I hate mathematicians.

Richard P. Feynman
Hate, Science, I Hate

I think we can safely assume that no one understands quantum mechanics.

Richard P. Feynman
Thinking, Assuming, Mechanic

Philosophers say a great deal about what is absolutely necessary for science, and it is always, so far as one can see, rather naive, and probably wrong.

Richard P. Feynman
Philosopher, Deals, Naive
Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, Matthew Sands (2013). “The Feynman Lectures on Physics, vol. 1 for tablets”, Basic Books

In any organization there ought to be the possibility of discussion... fence sitting is an art, and it's difficult, and it's important to do, rather than to go headlong in one direction or the other. It's just better to have action, isn't it than to sit on the fence? Not if you're not sure which way to go, it isn't.

Richard P. Feynman
Art, Thinking, One Direction

The difficulty really is psychological and exists in the perpetual torment that results from your saying to yourself, "But how can it be like that?" which is a reflection of uncontrolled but utterly vain desire to see it in terms of something familiar. ... If you will simply admit that maybe Nature does behave like this, you will find her a delightful, entrancing thing. Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possible avoid it, "But how can it be like that?" because you will get 'down the drain', into a blind alley from which nobody has escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that.

Richard P. Feynman
Science, Reflection, Desire
"The Character of Physical Law". Book by Richard P. Feynman, 1965.

It is odd, but on the infrequent occasions when I have been called upon in a formal place to play the bongo drums, the introducer never seems to find it necessary to mention that I also do theoretical physics.

Richard P. Feynman
Science, Play, Theoretical Physics
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.102, Princeton University Press

Science is of value because it can produce something.

Richard P. Feynman
Produce, Values
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.146, Princeton University Press

When you get as old as I am, you start to realize that you've told most of the good stuff you know to other people anyway.

Richard P. Feynman
People, Stuff, Realizing

I'd hate to die twice. It's so boring.

Richard P. Feynman
Hate, Bad Ass, Boring
"Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman". Book by James Gleick, 1992.

So this piece of dirt waits four and a half billion years and evolves and changes, and now a strange creature stands here with instruments and talks to the strange creatures in the audience. What a wonderful world!

Richard P. Feynman
Years, Waiting, Pieces
Richard P. Feynman (2009). “The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist”, p.11, Hachette UK

This attitude of mind - this attitude of uncertainty - is vital to the scientist, and it is this attitude of mind which the student must first acquire. It becomes a habit of thought. Once acquired, we cannot retreat from it anymore.

Richard P. Feynman
Attitude, Mind, Religion
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.286, Princeton University Press

Learn what the rest of the world is like. The variety is worthwhile.

Richard P. Feynman
World, Worthwhile, Variety
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.174, Princeton University Press

There are thousands of years in the past, and there is an unknown amount of time in the future. There are all kinds of opportunities, and there are all kinds of dangers.

Richard P. Feynman
Past, Opportunity, Years
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.358, Princeton University Press

The idea is to try to give all the information to help others to judge the value of your contribution; not just the information that leads to judgment in one particular direction or another.

Richard P. Feynman
Helping Others, Ideas, Giving
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.132, Princeton University Press

While I am describing to you how Nature works, you won't understand why Nature works that way. But you see, nobody understands that.

Richard P. Feynman
Way, Describing
Richard P. Feynman (2014). “QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter”, p.10, Princeton University Press

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