The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.
—Richard Feynman
Topics: Intelligence
Our imagination is stretched to the utmost, not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really there, but just to comprehend those things which are there.
—Richard Feynman
I can live with doubt, and uncertainty, and not knowing. I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.
—Richard Feynman
Philosophers say a great deal about what is absolutely necessary for science, and it is always, so far as one can see, rather naive, and probably wrong.
—Richard Feynman
Topics: Philosophy
I don’t know anything, but I do know that everything is interesting if you go into it deeply enough.
—Richard Feynman
We have a habit in writing articles published in scientific journals to make the work as finished as possible, to cover up all the tracks, to not worry about the blind alleys or describe how you had the wrong idea first, and so on. So there isn’t any place to publish, in a dignified manner, what you actually did in order to get to do the work.
—Richard Feynman
Topics: Science
In this age of specialization men who thoroughly know one field are often incompetent to discuss another.
—Richard Feynman
When playing Russian roulette the fact that the first shot got off safely is little comfort for the next.
—Richard Feynman
Is no one inspired by our present picture of the universe? Our poets do not write about it; our artists do not try to portray this remarkable thing. The value of science remains unsung by singers: you are reduced to hearing not a song or poem, but an evening lecture about it. This is not yet a scientific age.
—Richard Feynman
Topics: Science
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
—Richard Feynman
Topics: Nature, Technology
I don’t know what’s the matter with people: they don’t learn by understanding, they learn by some other way—by rote or something. Their knowledge is so fragile!
—Richard Feynman
Topics: Learning
God was invented to explain mystery. God is always invented to explain those things that you do not understand.
—Richard Feynman
Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars mere globs of gas atoms. I, too, can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more?
—Richard Feynman
Listen, buddy, if I could tell you in a minute what I did, it wouldn’t be worth the Nobel Prize.
—Richard Feynman
What I cannot create, I do not understand.
—Richard Feynman
I was born not knowing and have only had a little time to change that here and there.
—Richard Feynman
I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy — and when he talks about a nonscientific matter, he will sound as naive as anyone untrained in the matter.
—Richard Feynman
There is no harm in doubt and skepticism, for it is through these that new discoveries are made.
—Richard Feynman
Topics: Discovery
A great deal more is known than has been proved.
—Richard Feynman
Philosophy of science is about as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds.
—Richard Feynman
I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I’m not absolutely sure of anything, and many things I don’t know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we’re here, and what the question might mean. I might think about it a little bit, but if I can’t figure it out, then I go on to something else. But I don’t have to know an answer…. I don’t feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in the mysterious universe without having any purpose, which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell, possibly. It doesn’t frighten me.
—Richard Feynman
Topics: Life
You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird… So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing — that’s what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.
—Richard Feynman
The worthwhile problems are the ones you can really solve or help solve, the ones you can really contribute something to. No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it.
—Richard Feynman
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
J. Robert Oppenheimer American Physicist
Niels Bohr Danish Physicist
Albert Einstein German-born Theoretical Physicist
Max Planck German Theoretical Physicist
Werner Heisenberg German Theoretical Physicist
Arthur Compton American Physicist
Marie Curie Polish-born French Physicist
Isaac Newton English Physicist
Howard H. Aiken American Physicist
Linus Pauling American Scientist, Peace Activist