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 Poets say science takes away from the beauty of stars-mere globs of gas atoms. Nothing is "mere". I too see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? ...What is the pattern, or the meaning, or the why? It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little more about it. For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it. Richard P. Feynman stars night past It is the fact that the electrons cannot all get on top of each other that makes tables and everything else solid. Richard P. Feynman electrons tables facts Scientific views end in awe and mystery, lost at the edge in uncertainty, but they appear to be so deep and so impressive that the theory that it is all arranged as a stage for God to watch man's struggle for good and evil seems inadequate. Richard P. Feynman struggle fear men Agnostic for me would be trying to weasel out and sound a little nicer than I am about this. Richard P. Feynman would-be sound trying Nature isn't classical, dammit, and if you want to make a simulation of nature, you'd better make it quantum mechanical, and by golly it's a wonderful problem, because it doesn't look so easy. Richard P. Feynman problem want looks The basis of action on love, the brotherhood of all men, the value of the individual... the humility of the spirit. Richard P. Feynman pride humility men A person talks in such generalities that everyone can understand him and it's considered to be some deep philosophy. However, I would like to be very rather more special and I would like to be understood in an honest way, rather than in a vague way. Richard P. Feynman special philosophy way This is the key of modern science and is the beginning of the true understanding of nature. This idea. That to look at the things, to record the details, and to hope that in the information thus obtained, may lie a clue to one or another of a possible theoretical interpretation. Richard P. Feynman keys lying ideas The unanswerable mysteries... the attitude that all is uncertain... to summarize it - the humility of the intellect. Richard P. Feynman pride humility attitude Therefore psychologically we must keep all the theories in our heads, and every theoretical physicist who is any good knows six or seven different theoretical representations for exactly the same physics. Richard P. Feynman six physics different It is to be emphasized that no matter how many [amplitude] arrows we draw, add, or multiply, our objective is to calculate a single final arrow for the event . Mistakes are often made by physics students at first because they do not keep this important point in mind. They work for so long analyzing events involving a single photon that they begin to think that the arrow is somehow associated with the photon [rather than with the event]. Richard P. Feynman arrows mistake thinking 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 imagination science knowledge 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 understanding imagination science On the contrary, it's because somebody knows something about it that we can't talk about physics . It's the things that nobody knows anything about that we can discuss. We can talk about the weather; we can talk about social problems; we can talk about psychology; we can talk about international finance gold transfers we can't talk about, because those are understood so it's the subject that nobody knows anything about that we can all talk about! Richard P. Feynman psychology gold weather What is necessary for 'the very existence of science,' and what the characteristics of nature are, are not to be determined by pompous preconditions, they are determined always by the material with which we work, by nature herself. We look, and we see what we find, and we cannot say ahead of time successfully what it is going to look like. ... It is necessary for the very existence of science that minds exist which do not allow that nature must satisfy some preconceived conditions. Richard P. Feynman mind math science But see that the imagination of nature is far, far greater than the imagination of man. Richard P. Feynman nature imagination men 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 The chance is high that the truth lies in the fashionable direction. But, on the off-chance that it is in another direction - a direction obvious from an unfashionable view of field theory - who will find it? Only someone who has sacrificed himself by teaching himself quantum electrodynamics from a peculiar and unusual point of view; one that he may have to invent for himself. Richard P. Feynman teaching views lying All things are made of atoms - little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence, you will see, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just a little imagination and thinking are applied. Richard P. Feynman distance knowledge moving It requires a much higher degree of imagination to understand the electromagnetic field than to understand invisible angels. ... I speak of the E and B fields and wave my arms and you may imagine that I can see them ... [but] I cannot really make a picture that is even nearly like the true waves. Richard P. Feynman degrees angel imagination
