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 More Quotes by Richard P. Feynman More Quotes From Richard P. Feynman No! Not for a second! I immediately began to think how this could have happened. And I realized that the clock was old and was always breaking. That the clock probably stopped some time before and the nurse coming in to the room to record the time of death would have looked at the clock and jotted down the time from that. I never made any supernatural connection, not even for a second. I just wanted to figure out how it happened. Richard P. Feynman atheism nurse thinking It does not make any difference how beautiful your guess is. It does not make any difference how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is if it disagrees with experiment it is wrong. That is all there is to it. Richard P. Feynman smart names beautiful The real problem in speech is not precise language. The problem is clear language. Richard P. Feynman learning language problem If you can find any other view of the world which agrees over the entire range where things have already been observed, but disagrees somewhere else, you have made a great discovery. Richard P. Feynman views somewhere-else discovery Although it is uncertain, it is necessary to make science useful. Science is only useful if it tells you about some experiment that has not been done; it is not good if it only tells you what just went on. Richard P. Feynman experiments uncertain done The problem of creating something new, but which is consistent with everything which has been seen before, is one of extreme difficulty. Richard P. Feynman creating something-new problem Few people realize the number of things that are possible. Richard P. Feynman realizing numbers people I don't believe I can really do without teaching. The reason is, I have to have something so that when I don't have any ideas and I'm not getting anywhere, I can say to myself, "At least I'm living; at least I'm doing something. I'm making some contribution." It's just psychological. Richard P. Feynman teaching believe ideas Just as a poet often has license from the rules of grammar and pronunciation, we should like to ask for 'physicists' license from the rules of mathematics in order to express what we wish to say in as simple a manner as possible. Richard P. Feynman simple wish order People may come along and argue philosophically that they like one better than another; but we have learned from much experience that all philosophical intuitions about what nature is going to do fail. Richard P. Feynman philosophical intuition people To test whether you have learned an idea or a definition, rephrase what you just learned without using the new word. Richard P. Feynman definitions tests ideas The idea is to try to give all the information to help others to judge the value of your contribution; not just the information that leads to judgment in one particular direction or another. Richard P. Feynman helping-others giving ideas Nature...cannot be fooled! Richard P. Feynman fooled So this piece of dirt waits four and a half billion years and evolves and changes, and now a strange creature stands here with instruments and talks to the strange creatures in the audience. What a wonderful world! Richard P. Feynman pieces waiting years Computer science is not as old as physics; it lags by a couple of hundred years. However, this does not mean that there is significantly less on the computer scientist's plate than on the physicist's: younger it may be, but it has had a far more intense upbringing! Richard P. Feynman couple mean years Don't worry about anything. Go out and have a good time. Richard P. Feynman anything-goes good-times worry The other thing that gives a scientific man the creeps in the world today are the methods of choosing leaders - in every nation. Today, for example, in the United States, the two political parties have decided to employ public relations men, that is, advertising men, who are trained in the necessary methods of telling the truth or lying in order to develop a product. Richard P. Feynman party men lying In physics the truth is rarely perfectly clear, and that is certainly universally the case in human affairs. Hence, what is not surrounded by uncertainty cannot be the truth. Richard P. Feynman truth-is affair physics For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it. Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent? Richard P. Feynman artist men past It is our responsibility to leave the people of the future a free hand. Richard P. Feynman responsibility hands people
