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Richard P. Feynman Quotes - Page 6

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Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself.

Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself.

Richard P. Feynman
Atheism, Trying, Way
"What is and What Should be the Role of Scientific Culture in Modern Society". Lecture at the Galileo Symposium, Italy, 1964.

Don't think about what you want to be, but what you want to do. Keep up some kind of a minimum with other things so that society doesn't stop you from doing anything at all.

Richard P. Feynman
Ambition, Thinking, Want

Mathematics is not just a language. Mathematics is a language plus reasoning.

Richard P. Feynman
Language, Mathematics, Plus
"The Character of Physical Law". Book by Richard P. Feynman, 1965.

Winning a Nobel Prize is no big deal, but winning it with an IQ of 124 is really something.

Richard P. Feynman
Winning, Bigs, Nobel

Maybe that is why young people make success. They don't know enough.

Richard P. Feynman
Children, Ignorance, People
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.144, Princeton University Press

The idea that no one really knew how to run a government led to the idea that we should arrange a system by which new ideas could be developed, tried out, and tossed out if necessary, with more new ideas brought in - a trial and error system.

Richard P. Feynman
Running, Errors, Government
"What Do You Care What Other People Think". Book by Richard P. Feynman, 1988.

The game I play is a very interesting one. It's imagination, in a tight straightjacket.

Richard P. Feynman
Play, Games, Interesting
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.85, Princeton University Press

Of course, you only live one life, and you make all your mistakes, and learn what not to do, and that's the end of you.

Richard P. Feynman
Mistake, Ends, Courses
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.173, Princeton University Press

We have a habit in writing articles published in scientific journals to make the work as finished as possible, to cover up all the tracks, to not worry about the blind alleys or describe how you had the wrong idea first, and so on. So there isn't any place to publish, in a dignified manner, what you actually did in order to get to do the work, although, there has been in these days, some interest in this kind of thing.

Richard P. Feynman
Funny, Work, Writing
"The Development of the Space-Time View of Quantum Electrodynamics". Richard P. Feynman's Nobel lecture, www.nobelprize.org. December 11, 1965.

No man is rich who is unsatisfied, but who wants nothing possess his heart's desire.

Richard P. Feynman
Heart, Men, Desire

Some people say, "How can you live without knowing?" I do not know what they mean. I always live without knowing. That is easy. How you get to know is what I want to know.

Richard P. Feynman
Philosophy, Mean, Knowing
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.23, Princeton University Press

The electron is a theory we use; it is so useful in understanding the way nature works that we can almost call it real.

Richard P. Feynman
Real, Math, Understanding
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!". Book by Richard P. Feynman, p. 70, 1985.

I don't believe I can really do without teaching.

Richard P. Feynman
Believe, Teaching, Don't Believe
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.293, Princeton University Press

The theoretical broadening which comes from having many humanities subjects on the campus is offset by the general dopiness of the people who study these things.

Richard P. Feynman
Humorous, Science, People
Richard P. Feynman's letter to Robert Bacher (April 6, 1950) as quoted in "Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman", book by James Gleick, 1992.

We cannot define anything precisely. If we attempt to, we get into the paralysis of thought that comes to philosophers, who sit opposite each other, one saying to the other, "You don't know what you are talking about!" The second one says, "What do you mean by know? What do you mean by talking? What do you mean by you?"

Richard P. Feynman
Mean, Talking, Philosopher
"The Feynman Lectures on Physics (volume I; lecture 8: "Motion")". Book by Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton and Matthew Sands, 1964.

There is nothing that living things do that cannot be understood from the point of view that they are made of atoms acting according to the laws of physics.

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

I learned from her that every woman is worried about her looks, no matter how beautiful she is.

Richard P. Feynman
Beautiful, Looks, Matter

The world is a dynamic mess of jiggling things

Richard P. Feynman
World, Mess

Tell your son to stop trying to fill your head with science - for to fill your heart with love is enough!

Richard P. Feynman
Life, Heart, Son
"No Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard Feynman". Book by Christopher Sykes, 1996.

Science is a way to teach how something gets to be known, what is not known, to what extent things are known (for nothing is known absolutely), how to handle doubt and uncertainty, what the rules of evidence are, how to think about things so that judgments can be made, how to distinguish truth from fraud, and from show.

Richard P. Feynman
Science, Thinking, Doubt
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.146, Princeton University Press

It is scientific only to say what is more likely and what less likely, and not to be proving all the time the possible and impossible.

Richard P. Feynman
Possible And Impossible, Impossible, Prove
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.131, Princeton University Press

If there is something very slightly wrong in our definition of the theories, then the full mathematical rigor may convert these errors into ridiculous conclusions.

Richard P. Feynman
Science, Errors, May

It is surprising that people do not believe that there is imagination in science. It is a very interesting kind of imagination, unlike that of the artist. The great difficulty is in trying to imagine something that you have never seen, that is consistent in every detail with what has already been seen, and that is different from what has been thought of; furthermore, it must be definite and not a vague proposition. That is indeed difficult.

Richard P. Feynman
Believe, Artist, People
"The Quotable Feynman".

I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there.

Richard P. Feynman
Inspirational, Change, Education
Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

It does not make any difference how beautiful your guess is. It does not make any difference how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is if it disagrees with experiment it is wrong. That is all there is to it.

Richard P. Feynman
Beautiful, Smart, Names
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.129, Princeton University Press

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