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Richard P. Feynman Quotes - Page 14

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By honest I don't mean that you only tell what's true. But you make clear the entire situation. You make clear all the information that is required for somebody else who is intelligent to make up their mind.

By honest I don't mean that you only tell what's true. But you make clear the entire situation. You make clear all the information that is required for somebody else who is intelligent to make up their mind.

Richard P. Feynman
Honesty, Mean, Intelligent

In fact the total amount that a physicist knows is very little. He has only to remember the rules to get him from one place to another and he is all right.

Richard P. Feynman
Littles, Facts, Remember

Computer science is not as old as physics; it lags by a couple of hundred years. However, this does not mean that there is significantly less on the computer scientist's plate than on the physicist's: younger it may be, but it has had a far more intense upbringing!

Richard P. Feynman
Couple, Mean, Years

If it disagrees with experiment, it's wrong.

Richard P. Feynman
Experiments, Ifs, Disagree
"QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter". Book by Richard Feynman, p. 149-150, 1985.

We decided that 'trivial' means 'proved'. So we joked with the mathematicians: We have a new theorem- that mathematicians can prove only trivial theorems, because every theorem that's proved is trivial.

Richard P. Feynman
Mean, Science, Mathematics
Richard P Feynman (2014). “Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman: Adventures of a Curious Character as Told to Ralph Leighton”, p.84, Random House

To decide upon the answer is not scientific. In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar ajar only.

Richard P. Feynman
Science, Doors, Decide Upon

Although it is uncertain, it is necessary to make science useful. Science is only useful if it tells you about some experiment that has not been done; it is not good if it only tells you what just went on.

Richard P. Feynman
Done, Uncertain, Experiments

Thank you very Much, I enjoyed myself

Richard P. Feynman
Funny, Enjoyed

I don't like honors. ... I've already got the prize: the prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out, the kick in the discovery, the observation that other people use it. Those are the real things.

Richard P. Feynman
Real, Discovery, People
Richard P. Feynman (2005). “The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman”, p.16, Hachette UK

'Conservation' (the conservation law) means this ... that there is a number, which you can calculate, at one moment-and as nature undergoes its multitude of changes, this number doesn't change. That is, if you calculate again, this quantity, it'll be the same as it was before. An example is the conservation of energy: there's a quantity that you can calculate according to a certain rule, and it comes out the same answer after, no matter what happens, happens.

Richard P. Feynman
Change, Nature, Mean

Thus we can get the correct answer for the probability of partial reflection by imagining (falsely) that all reflection comes from only the front and back surfaces. In this intuitively easy analysis, the 'front surface' and 'back surface' arrows are mathematical constructions that give us the right answer, whereas .... a more accurate representation of what is really going on: partial reflection is the scattering of light by electrons inside the glass.

Richard P. Feynman
Reflection, Arrows, Glasses

What we need is imagination, but imagination in a terrible strait-jacket.

Richard P. Feynman
Imagination, Needs, Terrible

The beauty that is there is also available for me, too. But I see a deeper beauty that isn't so readily available to others.... I don't see how studying a flower ever detracts from its beauty. It only adds

Richard P. Feynman
Flower, Add, Study

... it is impossible to explain honestly the beauties of the laws of nature in a way that people can feel, without their having some deep understanding of mathematics. I am sorry, but this seems to be the case.

Richard P. Feynman
Sorry, Science, Law

You see, I get such fun out of thinking that I don't want to destroy this most pleasant machine that makes life such a big kick.

Richard P. Feynman
Fun, Thinking, Machines
""Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character: Adventures of a Curious Character".

Nature...cannot be fooled!

Richard P. Feynman
Fooled
Rogers Commission Report on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident appendix (1986)

If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will leave opportunities for alternatives.

Richard P. Feynman
Science, Opportunity, Progress

It's because somebody knows something about it that we can't talk about physics. It's the things that nobody knows anything about we can discuss.

Richard P. Feynman
Physics, Nobody Knows, Knows
Richard P Feynman (2014). “Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman: Adventures of a Curious Character as Told to Ralph Leighton”, p.310, Random House

But the real glory of science is that we can find a way of thinking such that the law is evident.

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

I am a successful lecturer in physics for popular audiences. The real entertainment gimmick is the excitement, drama and mystery of the subject matter. People love to learn something, they are 'entertained' enormously by being allowed to understand a little bit of something they never understood before. One must have faith in the subject and in people's interest in it.

Richard P. Feynman
Drama, Real, Successful
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.301, Princeton University Press

I couldn't claim that I was smarter than sixty-five other guys--but the average of sixty-five other guys, certainly!

Richard P. Feynman
Average, Guy, Claims

Some things that satisfy the rules of algebra can be interesting to mathematicians even though they don't always represent a real situation.

Richard P. Feynman
Real, Interesting, Mathematics
Richard P. Feynman (2014). “QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter”, p.63, Princeton University Press

Physicists like to think that all you have to do is say, these are the conditions, now what happens next?

Richard P. Feynman
Thinking, Next, Physics
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.187, Princeton University Press

What would happen if we could arrange the atoms one by one the way we want them?

Richard P. Feynman
Atoms, Want, Way
Richard P. Feynman (2005). “The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman”, p.72, Hachette UK

It is necessary for the very existence of science that minds exist which do not allow that nature must satisfy some preconceived conditions.

Richard P. Feynman
Mind, Statistics, Existence

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