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Richard P. Feynman Quotes about Science - Page 2

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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

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

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

For those who want some proof that physicists are human, the proof is in the idiocy of all the different units which they use for measuring energy.

Richard P. Feynman
Science, Different, Use
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.94, Princeton University Press

If I say [electrons] behave like particles I give the wrong impression; also if I say they behave like waves. They behave in their own inimitable way, which technically could be called a quantum mechanical way. They behave in a way that is like nothing that you have seen before.

Richard P. Feynman
Science, Giving, Way

It is the facts that matter, not the proofs. Physics can progress without the proofs, but we can't go on without the facts ... if the facts are right, then the proofs are a matter of playing around with the algebra correctly.

Richard P. Feynman
Science, Progress, Goes On

Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars - mere globs of gas atoms. I, too, can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more?

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

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.

Richard P. Feynman
Inspirational, Nature, Science
Rogers Commission Report on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident appendix (1986)

This is not very important what I'm doing. I'm just proving something.

Richard P. Feynman
Science, Important, Mathematics

I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in the mysterious universe without any purpose - which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell. Possibly. It doesn't frighten me.

Richard P. Feynman
Death, Knowledge, Science
"Horizon (The Pleasure of Finding Things Out)". Documentary (November 23, 1981), later published in "No Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard Feynman" edited by Christopher Sykes (p. 239), 1994.

To guess what to keep and what to throw away takes considerable skill. Actually it is probably merely a matter of luck, but it looks as if it takes considerable skill.

Richard P. Feynman
Science, Skills, Luck

I love only nature, and I hate mathematicians.

Richard P. Feynman
Hate, Science, I Hate

The difficulty really is psychological and exists in the perpetual torment that results from your saying to yourself, "But how can it be like that?" which is a reflection of uncontrolled but utterly vain desire to see it in terms of something familiar. ... If you will simply admit that maybe Nature does behave like this, you will find her a delightful, entrancing thing. Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possible avoid it, "But how can it be like that?" because you will get 'down the drain', into a blind alley from which nobody has escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that.

Richard P. Feynman
Science, Reflection, Desire
"The Character of Physical Law". Book by Richard P. Feynman, 1965.

It is odd, but on the infrequent occasions when I have been called upon in a formal place to play the bongo drums, the introducer never seems to find it necessary to mention that I also do theoretical physics.

Richard P. Feynman
Science, Play, Theoretical Physics
Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.102, Princeton University Press

The work I have done has, already, been adequately rewarded and recognized. Imagination reaches out repeatedly trying to achieve some higher level of understanding, until suddenly I find myself momentarily alone before one new corner of nature's pattern of beauty and true majesty revealed. That was my reward.

Richard P. Feynman
Science, Imagination, Understanding
Richard P. Feynman (2008). “Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: The Letters of Richard P. Feynman”, p.32, Hachette UK

That is the logical tight-rope on which we have to walk if we wish to interpret nature.

Richard P. Feynman
Science, Wish, Rope

The game I play is a very interesting one. It's imagination in a straightjacket, which is this: that it has to agree with the known laws of physics. ... It requires imagination to think of what's possible, and then it requires an analysis back, checking to see whether it fits, whether its allowed, according to what's known, okay?

Richard P. Feynman
Science, Thinking, Law

I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong. If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will leave opportunities for alternatives. We will not become enthusiastic for the fact, the knowledge, the absolute truth of the day, but remain always uncertain … In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar.

Richard P. Feynman
Science, Opportunity, Thinking

It is going to be necessary that everything that happens in a finite volume of space and time would have to be analyzable with a finite number of logical operations. The present theory of physics is not that way, apparently. It allows space to go down into infinitesimal distances, wavelengths to get infinitely great, terms to be summed in infinite order, and so forth; and therefore, if this proposition [that physics is computer-simulatable] is right, physical law is wrong.

Richard P. Feynman
Distance, Science, Finite Number

Unless a thing can be defined by measurement, it has no place in a theory. And since an accurate value of the momentum of a localized particle cannot be defined by measurement it therefore has no place in the theory.

Richard P. Feynman
Science, Momentum, Measurement
Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, Matthew Sands (2013). “The Feynman Lectures on Physics, vol. 3 for tablets”, Basic Books

The whole question of imagination in science is often misunderstood by people in other disciplines. ... They overlook the fact that whatever we are allowed to imagine in science must be consistent with everything else we know.

Richard P. Feynman
Knowledge, Science, Imagination
Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, Matthew Sands (2015). “The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol. II: The New Millennium Edition: Mainly Electromagnetism and Matter”, p.678, Basic Books

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

... 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

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

Richard P. Feynman
Science, Opportunity, Progress

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

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