Top 465 Quotes & Sayings by Richard P. Feynman - Page 3

There is no learning without having to pose a question. And a question requires doubt.

Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.

The "paradox" is only a conflict between reality and your feeling of what reality "ought to be."

You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It's their mistake, not my failing.

We have this terrible struggle to try to explain things to people who have no reason to want to know.

Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough.

Einstein was a giant. His head was in the clouds, but his feet were on the ground. But those of us who are not that tall have to choose!

Have no respect whatsoever for authority; forget who said it and instead look what he starts with, where he ends up, and ask yourself, "Is it reasonable?"

I wonder why. I wonder why. I wonder why I wonder.

Teach principles not formulas.

The test of all knowledge is experiment.

I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers, and possible beliefs, and different degrees of uncertainty about different things, but I am not absolutely sure of anything. There are many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask "Why are we here?" I might think about it a little bit, and if I can't figure it out then I go on to something else. But I don't have to know an answer. I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in the mysterious universe without having any purpose - which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell.

Everything we know is only some kind of approximation, because we know that we do not know all the laws yet. Therefore, things must be learned only to be unlearned again or, more likely, to be corrected.

There is no harm in doubt and skepticism, for it is through these that new discoveries are made.

Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.

Ordinary fools are all right; you can talk to them, and try to help them out. But pompous fools-guys who are fools and are covering it all over and impressing people as to how wonderful they are with all this hocus pocus-THAT, I CANNOT STAND! An ordinary fool isn't a faker; an honest fool is all right. But a dishonest fool is terrible!

I'm smart enough to know that I'm dumb.

Doubt is clearly a value in science. It is important to doubt and that the doubt is not a fearful thing, but a thing of great value.

The only way to deep happiness is to do something you love to the best of your ability

First you guess. Don't laugh, this is the most important step. Then you compute the consequences. Compare the consequences to experience. If it disagrees with experience, the guess is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It doesn't matter how beautiful your guess is or how smart you are or what your name is. If it disagrees with experience, it's wrong. That's all there is to it.

It does not matter who you are, or how smart you are, or what title you have, or how many of you there are, and certainly not how many papers your side has published, if your prediction is wrong then your hypothesis is wrong. Period.

I, a universe of atoms, an atom in the universe.

Our freedom to doubt was born out of a struggle against authority in the early days of science. It was a very deep and strong struggle: permit us to question - to doubt - to not be sure. I think that it is important that we do not forget this struggle and thus perhaps lose what we have gained.

The truth always turns out to be simpler than you thought.

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.

God was invented to explain mystery. God is always invented to explain those things that you do not understand.

The thing that doesn't fit is the thing that is most interesting.

Work hard to find something that fascinates you.

To those who do not know mathematics it is difficult to get across a real feeling as to the beauty, the deepest beauty, of nature ... If you want to learn about nature, to appreciate nature, it is necessary to understand the language that she speaks in.

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

The highest forms of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion.

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.

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

The real question of government versus private enterprise is argued on too philosophical and abstract a basis. Theoretically, planning may be good. But nobody has ever figured out the cause of government stupidity—and until they do (and find the cure), all ideal plans will fall into quicksand.

We absolutely must leave room for doubt or there is no progress and 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.

Science is the organized skepticism in the reliability of expert opinion

Scientists are explorers. Philosophers are tourists.

Physics is to mathematics what sex is to masturbation.

Experiment is the sole judge of the validity of any idea.

I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.

What is not surrounded by uncertainty cannot be the truth.

What I cannot create, I do not understand.

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

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!

Observation, reason, and experiment make up what we call the scientific method.

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.

Physics is not the most important thing. Love is.

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

When things are going well, something will go wrong. / When things just can't get any worse, they will. / Anytime things appear to be going better, you have overlooked something.

What did you ASK at school today?

Science is uncertain.

What Do You Care What Other People Think?

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.

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

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

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

My rule is, when you are unhappy, think about it. But when you're happy, don't. Why spoil it? You're probably happy for some ridiculous reason and you'd just spoil it to know it.

A scientist is never certain. ... We absolutely must leave room for doubt or there is no progress and there is no learning.

We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.

There is no authority who decides what is a good idea.