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Richard P. Feynman Quotes - Page 4

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It's amazing how many people even today use a computer to do something you can do with a pencil and paper in less time.

It's amazing how many people even today use a computer to do something you can do with a pencil and paper in less time.

Richard P. Feynman
People, Simplicity, Use

To not know math is a severe limitation to understanding the world.

Richard P. Feynman
Beer, Math, Understanding

Philosophy of science is about as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds.

Richard P. Feynman
Philosophy, Science, Engineering

If you have any talent, or any occupation that delights you, do it, and do it to the hilt. Don't ask why, or what difficulties you may get into.

Richard P. Feynman
Delight, Occupation, May
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.317, Princeton University Press

[Quantum mechanics] describes nature as absurd from the point of view of common sense. And yet it fully agrees with experiment. So I hope you can accept nature as She is - absurd.

Richard P. Feynman
Views, Common Sense, Religion

The inside of a computer is as dumb as hell but it goes like mad!

Richard P. Feynman
Learning, Technology, Mad

It turns out that all life is interconnected with all other life.

Richard P. Feynman
Nature, Life Is, Turns

Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter.

Richard P. Feynman
Falling In Love, Commitment, Matter

I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.

Richard P. Feynman
Badass, Knowledge, Science
Richard P. Feynman (2005). “The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman”, p.21, Hachette UK

What did you ASK at school today?

Richard P. Feynman
Educational, Teaching, School

I have a limited intelligence and I've used it in a particular direction.

Richard P. Feynman
Used, Particular
"The Pleasure of Finding Things Out". Book by Richard P. Feynman, p. 2-3, 1999.

I was terrible in English. I couldn't stand the subject. It seemed to me ridiculous to worry about whether you spelled something wrong or not, because English spelling is just a human convention--it has nothing to do with anything real, anything from nature. Any word can be spelled just as well a different way.

Richard P. Feynman
Real, Worry, Different
Richard P. Feynman (2011). “"What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character”, p.30, W. W. Norton & Company

A great deal more is known than has been proved.

Richard P. Feynman
Math, Deals, Has Beens
"The Music of the Primes : Searching to Solve the Greatest Mystery of Mathematics". Book by Marcus du Sautoy, 2003.

If a guy tells me the probability of failure is 1 in 100,000, I know he's full of crap.

Richard P. Feynman
Guy, Probability, Crap

John von Neumann gave me an interesting idea: that you don't have to be responsible for the world that you're in. So I have developed a very powerful sense of social irresponsibility as a result of von Neumann's advice. It's made me a very happy man ever since. But it was von Neumann who put the seed in that grew into my active irresponsibility!

Richard P. Feynman
Powerful, Men, Ideas
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!". Book by Richard P. Feynman. Part 3: "Feynman, The Bomb, and the Military", "Los Alamos from Below", p. 132, 1985.

What do I advise? Forget it all. Don't be afraid. Do what you get the most pleasure from. Is it to build a cloud chamber? Then go on doing things like that. Develop your talents wherever they may lead. Damn the torpedoes - full speed ahead!If you have any talent,or any occupation that delights you,do it, and do it to the hilt

Richard P. Feynman
Clouds, Delight, Goes On

If you don't like it, go somewhere else, to another universe where the rules are simpler.

Richard P. Feynman
Somewhere Else, Ifs, Universe
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.77, Princeton University Press

Another thing I must point out is that you cannot prove a vague theory wrong.

Richard P. Feynman
Theory, Prove, Vague

We absolutely must leave room for doubt or there is no progress and there is no learning. There is no learning without having to pose a question. And a question requires doubt. People search for certainty. But there is no certainty. People are terrified — how can you live and not know? It is not odd at all. You only think you know, as a matter of fact. And most of your actions are based on incomplete knowledge and you really don’t know what it is all about, or what the purpose of the world is, or know a great deal of other things. It is possible to live and not know.

Richard P. Feynman
Thinking, Incomplete Knowledge, People

It doesn't seem to me that this fantastically marvelous universe, this tremendous range of time and space and different kinds of animals, and all the different planets, and all these atoms with all their motions, and so on, all this complicated thing can merely be a stage so that God can watch human beings struggle for good and evil - which is the view that religion has. The stage is too big for the drama.

Richard P. Feynman
Atheist, Drama, Struggle
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.112, Princeton University Press

Victory usually goes to those green enough to underestimate the monumental hurdles they are facing.

Richard P. Feynman
Victory, Green, Underestimate

The test of all knowledge is experiment. Experiment is the sole judge of scientific truth.

Richard P. Feynman
Judging, Tests, Sole
Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, Matthew Sands (2013). “The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Desktop Edition Volume I”, Basic Books

Physics is not the most important thing. Love is.

Richard P. Feynman
Science, Technology, Love Is
"Quantum theory via 40-tonne trucks: How science writing became popular" by Marcus Chown, www.independent.co.uk. January 17, 2010.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that. After you’ve not fooled yourself, it’s easy not to fool other scientists. You just have to be honest in a conventional way after that.

Richard P. Feynman
Principles, Way, Fool
Richard P Feynman (2014). “Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman: Adventures of a Curious Character as Told to Ralph Leighton”, p.343, Random House

So I have just one wish for you – the good luck to be somewhere where you are free to maintain the kind of integrity I have described, and where you do not feel forced by a need to maintain your position in the organization, or financial support, or so on, to lose your integrity. May you have that freedom.

Richard P. Feynman
Integrity, Good Luck, Organization
Richard P. Feynman (2010). “"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character: Adventures of a Curious Character”, p.346, W. W. Norton & Company

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