I'm going to play with physics, whenever I want to, without worrying about any importance whatsoever. Richard P. Feynman More Quotes by Richard P. Feynman More Quotes From Richard P. Feynman It's because somebody knows something about it that we can't talk about physics. It's the things that nobody knows anything about we can discuss. Richard P. Feynman nobody-knowsphysicsknows We scientists are clever — too clever — are you not satisfied? Is four square miles in one bomb not enough? Men are still thinking. Just tell us how big you want it! Richard P. Feynman clevermenthinking Thus we can get the correct answer for the probability of partial reflection by imagining (falsely) that all reflection comes from only the front and back surfaces. In this intuitively easy analysis, the 'front surface' and 'back surface' arrows are mathematical constructions that give us the right answer, whereas .... a more accurate representation of what is really going on: partial reflection is the scattering of light by electrons inside the glass. Richard P. Feynman arrowsglassesreflection What we need is imagination, but imagination in a terrible strait-jacket. Richard P. Feynman terribleimaginationneeds All we know so far is what doesn't work. Richard P. Feynman knows Any schemes - such as 'think of symmetry laws', or 'put the information in mathematical form', or 'guess equations'- are known to everybody now, and they are all tried all the time. When you are stuck, the answer cannot be one of these, because you will have tried these right away...The next scheme, the new discovery, is going to be made in a completely different way. Richard P. Feynman lawdiscoverythinking It is surprising that people do not believe that there is imagination in science. It is a very interesting kind of imagination, unlike that of the artist. The great difficulty is in trying to imagine something that you have never seen, that is consistent in every detail with what has already been seen, and that is different from what has been thought of; furthermore, it must be definite and not a vague proposition. That is indeed difficult. Richard P. Feynman artistbelievepeople I have the advantage of having found out how hard it is to get to really know something. How careful you have to be about checking your experiments. How easy it is to make mistakes and fool yourself. I know what it means to know something. Richard P. Feynman foolmistakemean When the problem [quantum chromodynamics] is finally solved, it will all be by imagination. Then there will be some big thing about the great way it was done. But it's simple -it will all be by imagination, and persistence. Richard P. Feynman persistencelearningsimple In its efforts to learn as much as possible about nature, modern physics has found that certain things can never be "known" with certainty. Much of our knowledge must always remain uncertain. The most we can know is in terms of probabilities. Richard P. Feynman moderneffortphysics Only realistic flight schedules should be proposed, schedules that have a reasonable chance of being met. If in this way the government would not support them, then so be it. NASA owes it to the citizens from whom it asks support to be frank, honest, and informative. Richard P. Feynman supportsafetygovernment We can deduce, often, from one part of physics like the law of gravitation, a principle which turns out to be much more valid than the derivation. Richard P. Feynman physicsprincipleslaw One cannot understand... the universality of laws of nature, the relationship of things, without an understanding of mathematics. There is no other way to do it. Richard P. Feynman understandinglawway If you're doing an experiment, you should report everything that you think might make it invalid - not only what you think is right about it; other causes that could possibly explain your results; and things you thought of that you've eliminated by some other experiment, and how they worked -to make sure the other fellow can tell they have been eliminated. Richard P. Feynman causesmightthinking ... it is impossible to explain honestly the beauties of the laws of nature in a way that people can feel, without their having some deep understanding of mathematics. I am sorry, but this seems to be the case. Richard P. Feynman lawsorryscience You know how it always is, every new idea, it takes a generation or two until it becomes obvious that there's no real problem. It has not yet become obvious to me that there's no real problem. I cannot define the real problem, therefore I suspect there's no real problem, but I'm not sure there's no real problem. Richard P. Feynman realtwoideas There are thousands of years in the past, and there is an unknown amount of time in the future. There are all kinds of opportunities, and there are all kinds of dangers. Richard P. Feynman opportunitypastyears I was terrible in English. I couldn't stand the subject. It seemed to me ridiculous to worry about whether you spelled something wrong or not, because English spelling is just a human convention--it has nothing to do with anything real, anything from nature. Any word can be spelled just as well a different way. Richard P. Feynman differentrealworry We decided that 'trivial' means 'proved'. So we joked with the mathematicians: We have a new theorem- that mathematicians can prove only trivial theorems, because every theorem that's proved is trivial. Richard P. Feynman mathematicssciencemean You see, I get such fun out of thinking that I don't want to destroy this most pleasant machine that makes life such a big kick. Richard P. Feynman machinesfunthinking
