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. Richard P. Feynman More Quotes by Richard P. Feynman More Quotes From Richard P. Feynman We are not to tell nature what she’s gotta be... She's always got better imagination than we have. Richard P. Feynman imagination One of the ways of stopping science would be only to do experiments in the region where you know the law. But experimenters search most diligently, and with the greatest effort, in exactly those places where it seems most likely that we can prove our theories wrong. In other words, we are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress. Richard P. Feynman effort law discovery Physics is not the most important thing. Love is. Richard P. Feynman technology love-is science Don't pay attention to "authorities," think for yourself. Richard P. Feynman pay attention thinking It doesn't seem to me that this fantastically marvelous universe, this tremendous range of time and space and different kinds of animals, and all the different planets, and all these atoms with all their motions, and so on, all this complicated thing can merely be a stage so that God can watch human beings struggle for good and evil - which is the view that religion has. The stage is too big for the drama. Richard P. Feynman atheist struggle drama Observation, reason, and experiment make up what we call the scientific method. Richard P. Feynman observation scientific-method reason 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. Richard P. Feynman strong struggle science Winning a Nobel Prize is no big deal, but winning it with an IQ of 124 is really something. Richard P. Feynman nobel bigs winning I have a limited intelligence and I've used it in a particular direction. Richard P. Feynman particular used What I am going to tell you about is what we teach our physics students in the third or fourth year of graduate school... It is my task to convince you not to turn away because you don't understand it. You see my physics students don't understand it... That is because I don't understand it. Nobody does. Richard P. Feynman learning graduation school I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. Richard P. Feynman badass science knowledge Teach principles not formulas. Richard P. Feynman formulas teach principles 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 ignorant ignorance order The inside of a computer is as dumb as hell but it goes like mad! Richard P. Feynman mad learning technology We need to teach how doubt is not to be feared but welcomed. It's OK to say, "I don't know." Richard P. Feynman learning doubt needs Looking back at the worst times, it always seems that they were times in which there were people who believed with absolute faith and absolute dogmatism in something. And they were so serious in this matter that they insisted that the rest of the world agree with them. And then they would do things that were directly inconsistent with their own beliefs in order to maintain that what they said was true. Richard P. Feynman worst-times order people What Do You Care What Other People Think? Richard P. Feynman care people thinking There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers. Richard P. Feynman learning stars science If I could explain it to the average person, I wouldn't have been worth the Nobel Prize. Richard P. Feynman nobel persons average We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress. Richard P. Feynman progress trying science