If I could explain it to the average person, I wouldn't have been worth the Nobel Prize. Richard P. Feynman More Quotes by Richard P. Feynman More Quotes From Richard P. Feynman Everything is made of atoms. Richard P. Feynman atoms made Physicists like to think that all you have to do is say, these are the conditions, now what happens next? Richard P. Feynman next physics thinking I am not interested in what today's mathematicians find interesting. Richard P. Feynman mathematician today interesting The idea that no one really knew how to run a government led to the idea that we should arrange a system by which new ideas could be developed, tried out, and tossed out if necessary, with Richard P. Feynman errors government running As usual, nature's imagination far surpasses our own, as we have seen from the other theories which are subtle and deep. Richard P. Feynman nature usual imagination Scientific knowledge is an enabling power to do either good or bad — but it does not carry instructions on how to use it. Richard P. Feynman enabling use doe If a guy tells me the probability of failure is 1 in 100,000, I know he's full of crap. Richard P. Feynman probability crap guy I don't believe I can really do without teaching. Richard P. Feynman dont-believe teaching believe We've learned from experience that the truth will out. Richard P. Feynman truth-will-come-out There is nothing that living things do that cannot be understood from the point of view that they are made of atoms acting according to the laws of physics. Richard P. Feynman views law science I love only nature, and I hate mathematicians. Richard P. Feynman i-hate hate science The electron is a theory we use; it is so useful in understanding the way nature works that we can almost call it real. Richard P. Feynman understanding real math In a way, the Nobel Prize has been something of a pain in the neck, though there was at least one time that I got some fun out of it, Shortly after I won the Prize, Gweneth and I received an invitation from the Brazilian government to be the guests of honor at the Carnaval celebrations in Rio. Richard P. Feynman pain government fun A poet once said, "The whole universe is in a glass of wine." We will probably never know in what sense he meant that, for poets do not write to be understood. But it is true that if we look at a glass of wine closely enough we see the entire universe. Richard P. Feynman glasses wine writing People are always asking for the latest developments in the unification of this theory with that theory, and they don't give us a chance to tell them anything about what we know pretty well. They always want to know the things we don't know. Richard P. Feynman asking giving people There in wine is found the great generalization: all life is fermentation. Richard P. Feynman wine life-is found Unless a thing can be defined by measurement, it has no place in a theory. And since an accurate value of the momentum of a localized particle cannot be defined by measurement it therefore has no place in the theory. Richard P. Feynman measurement momentum science We've learned from experience that the truth will out. Other experimenters will repeat your experiment and find out whether you were wrong or right. Nature's phenomena will agree or they'll disagree with your theory. And, although you may gain some temporary fame and excitement, you will not gain a good reputation as a scientist if you haven't tried to be very careful in this kind of work. And it's this type of integrity, this kind of care not to fool yourself, that is missing to a large extent in much of the research in Cargo Cult Science. Richard P. Feynman research missing integrity From a long view of the history of mankind, seen from, say, ten thousand years from now, there can be little doubt that the most significant event of the 19th century will be judged as Maxwell's discovery of the laws of electrodynamics. The American Civil War will pale into provincial insignificance in comparison with this important scientific event of the same decade. Richard P. Feynman views discovery war Ordinarily it would take me about fifteen minutes to get a hallucination going," wrote Feynman, "but on a few occasions, when I smoked some marijuana beforehand, it came very quickly. Richard P. Feynman hallucinations marijuana fifteen
