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Richard P. Feynman Quotes - Page 9

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A philosopher once said, 'It is necessary for the very existence of science that the same conditions always produce the same results.' Well, they don't!

A philosopher once said, 'It is necessary for the very existence of science that the same conditions always produce the same results.' Well, they don't!

Richard P. Feynman
Philosopher, Quantum, Results

All things are made of atoms - little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence, you will see, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just a little imagination and thinking are applied.

Richard P. Feynman
Distance, Moving, Knowledge
"The Feynman Lectures on Physics". Physics textbook by Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, and Matthew Sands, volume I; lecture 1, "Atoms in Motion"; section 1-2, "Matter is made of atoms"; p. 1-2, 1964.

Since then I never pay attention to anything by "experts". I calculate everything myself.

Richard P. Feynman
Experts, Attention, Pay
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.173, Princeton University Press

In its efforts to learn as much as possible about nature, modern physics has found that certain things can never be "known" with certainty. Much of our knowledge must always remain uncertain. The most we can know is in terms of probabilities.

Richard P. Feynman
Effort, Physics, Modern
The Feynman Lectures on Physics (pp. 6-1 1)

The scale of light can be described by numbers called the frequency and as the numbers get higher, the light goes from red to blue to ultraviolet. We can't see ultraviolet light, but it can affect photographic plates. It's still light only the number is different.

Richard P. Feynman
Light, Blue, Numbers
Richard P. Feynman (2014). “QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter”, p.13, Princeton University Press

Nature does not care what we call it, she just keeps on doing it.

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

Start out understanding religion by saying everything is possibly wrong... As soon as you do that, you start sliding down an edge which is hard to recover from.

Richard P. Feynman
Understanding, Religion, Atheism

You say you are a nameless man. You are not to your wife and to your child. You will not long remain so to your immediate colleagues if you can answer their simple questions when they come into your office. You are not nameless to me. Do not remain nameless to yourself — it is too sad a way to be. Know your place in the world and evaluate yourself fairly, not in terms of the naïve ideals of your own youth, nor in terms of what you erroneously imagine your teacher's ideals are.

Richard P. Feynman
Teacher, Children, Simple
Richard P. Feynman (2008). “Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: The Letters of Richard P. Feynman”, p.252, Hachette UK

Science is what we have learned about how to keep from fooling ourselves.

Richard P. Feynman
Fooling Ourselves

Light is something like raindrops each little lump of light is called a photon and if the light is all one color, all the "raindrops" are the same.

Richard P. Feynman
Light, Color, Raindrops
Richard P. Feynman (2014). “QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter”, p.14, Princeton University Press

[B]eyond poverty, beyond the point that the material needs are reasonably satisfied, only from within is peace.

Richard P. Feynman
Needs, Poverty, Satisfied

All we know so far is what doesn't work.

Richard P. Feynman
Knows

You can’t say A is made of B or vice versa. All mass is interaction.

Richard P. Feynman
Vices, Made, Vice Versa
"Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman". Book by James Gleick, 1992.

It is the fact that the electrons cannot all get on top of each other that makes tables and everything else solid.

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

If the professors of English will complain to me that the students who come to the universities, after all those years of study, still cannot spell 'friend,' I say to them that something's the matter with the way you spell friend.

Richard P. Feynman
Years, Complaining, Matter
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.315, Princeton University Press

Everything is made of atoms.

Richard P. Feynman
Atoms, Made
Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, Matthew Sands (2015). “The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol. I: The New Millennium Edition: Mainly Mechanics, Radiation, and Heat”, p.67, Basic Books

I think I can safely say that nobody understands Quantum Mechanics.

Richard P. Feynman
Fake People, Thinking, Physics
The Character of Physical Law ch. 6 (1965)

I don't like honors. I'm appreciated for the work that I did, and for people who appreciate it, and I notice that other physicists use my work. I don't need anything else. I don't think there's any sense to anything else.... 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. The honors are unreal to me. I don't believe in honors... I can't stand it, it hurts me.

Richard P. Feynman
Hurt, Real, Believe

Nature's imagination far surpasses our own.

Richard P. Feynman
Imagination
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.128, Princeton University Press

I have the advantage of having found out how hard it is to get to really know something. How careful you have to be about checking your experiments. How easy it is to make mistakes and fool yourself. I know what it means to know something.

Richard P. Feynman
Mistake, Mean, Fool

[When a young person loses faith in his religion because he begins to study science and its methodology] it isn't that [through the obtaining of real knowledge that] he knows it all, but he suddenly realizes that he doesn't know it all.

Richard P. Feynman
Real, Thinking, Study

You see, the chemists have a complicated way of counting: instead of saying "one, two, three, four, five protons", they say, "hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron."

Richard P. Feynman
Two, Numbers, Three
Richard P. Feynman (2014). “QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter”, p.113, Princeton University Press

I always do that, get into something and see how far I can go.

Richard P. Feynman
I Can
Richard P. Feynman (2018). “"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character”, p.76, W. W. Norton & Company

What I can't create I don't understand

Richard P. Feynman
Computer Programming, Programming Languages, Computer Language
Quoted in James Gleick, Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman (1992)

Today's brains are yesterday's mashed potatoes.

Richard P. Feynman
Yesterday, Brain, Today

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