For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled. Richard P. Feynman More Quotes by Richard P. Feynman More Quotes From Richard P. Feynman When you get as old as I am, you start to realize that you've told most of the good stuff you know to other people anyway. Richard P. Feynman realizing stuff people When a Caltech student asked the eminent cosmologist Michael Turner what his "bias" was in favoring one or another particle as a likely candidate to compromise dark matter in the universe, Feynmann snapped, "Why do you want to know his bias? Form your own bias!" Richard P. Feynman learning dark want If all of this, all the life of a stream of water, can be nothing but a pile of atoms, how much more is possible? Richard P. Feynman atoms streams water Don't think about what you want to be, but what you want to do. Keep up some kind of a minimum with other things so that society doesn't stop you from doing anything at all. Richard P. Feynman ambition want thinking 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 giving science way The world is a dynamic mess of jiggling things Richard P. Feynman mess world If we want to solve a problem that we have never solved before, we must leave the door to the unknown ajar. Richard P. Feynman learning doors science 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 in some doubt. Richard P. Feynman ignorant doubt answers If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will leave opportunities for alternatives. Richard P. Feynman progress opportunity science This is not yet a scientific age. Richard P. Feynman age 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. Richard P. Feynman electrons behave way To develop working ideas efficiently, I try to fail as fast as I can. Richard P. Feynman failure trying ideas I learned a lot of different things from different schools. MIT is a very good place…. It has developed for itself a spirit, so that every member of the whole place thinks that it’s the most wonderful place in the world—it’s the center, somehow, of scientific and technological development in the United States, if not the world … and while you don’t get a good sense of proportion there, you do get an excellent sense of being with it and in it, and having motivation and desire to keep on Richard P. Feynman learning motivation school If science is to progress, what we need is the ability to experiment, honesty in reporting results—the results must be reported without somebody saying what they would like the results to have been—and finally—an important thing—the intelligence to interpret the results. Richard P. Feynman intelligence honesty important There was a time when the newspapers said that only twelve men understood the theory of relativity. I do not believe there ever was such a time ... On the other hand, I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics. Richard P. Feynman men believe thinking I'd hate to die twice. It's so boring. Richard P. Feynman bad-ass boring hate Everybody who reasons carefully about anything is making a contribution ... and if you abstract it away and send it to the Department of Mathematics they put it in books. Richard P. Feynman mathematics reason book This attitude of mind - this attitude of uncertainty - is vital to the scientist, and it is this attitude of mind which the student must first acquire. It becomes a habit of thought. Once acquired, we cannot retreat from it anymore. Richard P. Feynman mind attitude religion What is the fundamental hypothesis of science, the fundamental philosophy? We stated it in the first chapter: the sole test of the validity of any idea is experiment. ... If we are told that the same experiment will always produce the same result, that is all very well, but if when we try it, it does not, then it does not. We just have to take what we see, and then formulate all the rest of our ideas in terms of our actual experience. Richard P. Feynman math philosophy ideas I'm going to play with physics, whenever I want to, without worrying about any importance whatsoever. Richard P. Feynman want play worry
