Richard P. Feynman Quotes

What I cannot create, I do not understand.

Turbulence is the most important unsolved problem of classical physics.

A great deal more is known than has been proved.

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

Learn what the rest of the world is like. The variety is worthwhile.

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

If all of mathematics disappeared, physics would be set back by exactly one week.

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.

So far as we know, all the fundamental laws of physics, like Newton's equations, are reversible.

I love to think. I once considered taking drugs as an attempt to better understand an altered state of mind; however, I decided not to. I didn't want to chance ruining the machine.

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.

Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself.

But logic is not all, one needs one's heart to follow an idea.

What is not surrounded by uncertainty cannot be the truth.

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.

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.

Victory usually goes to those green enough to underestimate the monumental hurdles they are facing.

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

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

It is simple, therefore it is beautiful

All the time you're saying to yourself, 'I could do that, but I won't,'--which is just another way of saying that you can't.

Science is what we do to keep us from lying to ourselves

Another thing I must point out is that you cannot prove a vague theory wrong.

If an apple was magnified to the size of the Earth, then the atoms in the apple would be approximately the size of the original apple.

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.

Science alone of all the subjects contains within itself the lesson of the danger of belief in the infallibility of the greatest teachers of the preceding generation.

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."

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?"

If you know that you are not sure, you have a chance to improve the situation. I want to demand this freedom for future generations.

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.

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

The exception tests the rule.

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

There is one simplification at least. Electrons behave ... in exactly the same way as photons; they are both screwy, but in exactly in the same way.

To develop working ideas efficiently, I try to fail as fast as I can.

You do not know anything until you have practiced.

It turns out that all life is interconnected with all other life.

We are not to tell nature what she’s gotta be... She's always got better imagination than we have.

It is necessary for the very existence of science that minds exist which do not allow that nature must satisfy some preconceived conditions.

What would happen if we could arrange the atoms one by one the way we want them?

It is important to realize that in physics today, we have no knowledge of what energy is

People who wish to analyze nature without using mathematics must settle for a reduced understanding.

The test of all knowledge is experiment.

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.

If we want to solve a problem that we have never solved before, we must leave the door to the unknown ajar.

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

I don't feel frightened by not knowing things.

I have to disregard everybody else, and then I can do my own work.

The real problem in speech is not precise language. The problem is clear language.

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