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Richard P. Feynman Quotes about Ignorance

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Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.

Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.

Richard P. Feynman
Ignorance, Science, Thinking
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.291, Princeton University Press

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 still in some doubt. We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty - some most unsure, some nearly sure, but none absolutely certain.

Richard P. Feynman
Ignorance, Order, Ignorant
"The Value of Science". Richard P. Feynman's public address at the National Academy of Sciences, Autumn 1955.

Another of the qualities of science is that it teaches the value of rational thought, as well as the importance of freedom of thought; the positive results that come from doubting that all the lessons are true... Learn from science that you must doubt the experts. As a matter of fact, I can also define science another way: Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.

Richard P. Feynman
Ignorance, Doubt, Quality

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

We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress, we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt.

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

It is in the admission of ignorance and the admission of uncertainty that there is a hope for the continuous motion of human beings in some direction that doesn't get confined, permanently blocked, as it has so many times before in various periods in the history of man.

Richard P. Feynman
Ignorance, Men, Thinking
"The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist (lecture II: "The Uncertainty of Values")". Book by Richard P. Feynman, 1998.

You see, one thing is, I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things... It doesn't frighten me.

Richard P. Feynman
Ignorance, Knowing, Doubt

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