Richard P. Feynman Quotes & Sayings

The only way to deep happiness is to do something you love to the best of your ability — Richard P. Feynman

This is not yet a scientific age. — Richard P. Feynman

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

It is in the admission of ignorance and the admission of uncertainty that there is a hope for the continuous motion of human beings in some direction that doesn't get confined, permanently blocked, as it has so many times before in various periods in the history of man. — Richard P. Feynman

Winning a Nobel Prize is no big deal, but winning it with an IQ of 124 is really something. — Richard P. Feynman

Science is a way to teach how something gets to be known, what is not known, to what extent things are known (for nothing is known absolutely), how to handle doubt and uncertainty, what the rules of evidence are, how to think about things so that judgments can be made, how to distinguish truth from fraud, and from show. — Richard P. Feynman

To do any important work in physics a very good mathematical ability and aptitude are required. Some work in applications can be done without this, but it will not be very inspired. If you must satisfy your "personal curiosity concerning the mysteries of nature" what will happen if these mysteries turn out to be laws expressed in mathematical terms (as they do turn out to be)? You cannot understand the physical world in any deep or satisfying way without using mathematical reasoning with facility. — Richard P. Feynman

Investigating the forces that hold the nuclear particles together was a long task. — Richard P. Feynman

If you can't explain something to a first year student, then you haven't really understood . — Richard P. Feynman

Quarks came in a number of varieties - in fact, at first, only three were needed to explain all the hundreds of particles and the different kinds of quarks - they are called u-type, d-type, s-type. — Richard P. Feynman

If I could explain it to the average person, I wouldn't have been worth the Nobel Prize. — Richard P. Feynman

I am not interested in what today's mathematicians find interesting. — Richard P. Feynman

We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress, we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt. — Richard P. Feynman

We get the exciting result that the total energy of the universe is zero. Why this should be so is one of the great mysteries - and therefore one of the important questions of physics. After all, what would be the use of studying physics if the mysteries were not the most important things to investigate? — Richard P. Feynman

The easiest person to fool is yourself. — Richard P. Feynman

A scientist is never certain ... We absolutely must leave room for doubt or there is no progress and there is no learning. — Richard P. Feynman

I don't think that the laws can be considered to be like God because they have been figured out. — Richard P. Feynman

But logic is not all, one needs one's heart to follow an idea. — Richard P. Feynman

I've always been very one-sided about science, and when I was younger, I concentrated almost all my effort on it. — Richard P. Feynman

Today's brains are yesterday's mashed potatoes. — Richard P. Feynman

The inside of a computer is as dumb as hell but it goes like mad! — Richard P. Feynman

Whenever you see a sweeping statement that a tremendous amount can come from a very small number of assumptions, you always find that it is false. There are usually a large number of implied assumptions that are far from obvious if you think about them sufficiently carefully. — Richard P. Feynman

Few people realize the number of things that are possible. — Richard P. Feynman

If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics. — Richard P. Feynman

First you guess. Don't laugh, this is the most important step. Then you compute the consequences. Compare the consequences to experience. If it disagrees with experience, the guess is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It doesn't matter how beautiful your guess is or how smart you are or what your name is. If it disagrees with experience, it's wrong. That's all there is to it. — Richard P. Feynman

Observation, reason, and experiment make up what we call the scientific method. — Richard P. Feynman

The scale of light can be described by numbers called the frequency and as the numbers get higher, the light goes from red to blue to ultraviolet. We can't see ultraviolet light, but it can affect photographic plates. It's still light only the number is different. — Richard P. Feynman

It is simple, therefore it is beautiful — Richard P. Feynman

I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy. — Richard P. Feynman

The exception tests the rule. — Richard P. Feynman

There is no learning without having to pose a question. And a question requires doubt. — Richard P. Feynman

In any organization there ought to be the possibility of discussion ... fence sitting is an art, and it's difficult, and it's important to do, rather than to go headlong in one direction or the other. It's just better to have action, isn't it than to sit on the fence? Not if you're not sure which way to go, it isn't. — Richard P. Feynman

Victory usually goes to those green enough to underestimate the monumental hurdles they are facing. — Richard P. Feynman

I think that when we know that we actually do live in uncertainty, then we ought to admit it; it is of great value to realize that we do not know the answers to different questions. This attitude of mind - this attitude of uncertainty - is vital to the scientist, and it is this attitude of mind which the student must first acquire. — Richard P. Feynman

Every instrument that has been designed to be sensitive enough to detect weak light has always ended up discovering that the same thing: light is made of particles. — Richard P. Feynman

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

Gravitation is, so far, not understandable in terms of other phenomena. — Richard P. Feynman

I thought one should have the attitude of 'What do you care what other people think!' — Richard P. Feynman

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 unfashionable point of view; one that he may have to invent for himself. — Richard P. Feynman

In any decision for action, when you have to make up your mind what to do, there is always a 'should' involved, and this cannot be worked out from, 'If I do this, what will happen?' alone. — Richard P. Feynman

If you don't like it, go somewhere else, to another universe where the rules are simpler. — Richard P. Feynman

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

Once I get on a puzzle, I can't get off. — Richard P. Feynman

The correct statement of the laws of physics involves some very unfamiliar ideas which require advanced mathematics for their description. Therefore, one needs a considerable amount of preparatory training even to learn what the words mean. — Richard P. Feynman

Strange! I don't understand how it is that we can write mathematical expressions and calculate what the thing is going to do without being able to picture it. — Richard P. Feynman

Science is what we do to keep us from lying to ourselves — Richard P. Feynman

The ideas associated with the problems of the development of science, as far as I can see by looking around me, are not of the kind that everyone appreciates. — Richard P. Feynman

I got a signed document from Bullock's saying that they had such-and-such drawings on consignment. Of course, nobody bought any of them, but otherwise, I was a big success: I had my drawings on sale at Bullock's! — Richard P. Feynman

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

I love only nature, and I hate mathematicians. — Richard P. Feynman

I was a very shy character, always feeling uncomfortable because everybody was stronger than I, and always afraid I would look like a sissy. Everybody else played baseball; everybody else did all kinds of athletic things. — Richard P. Feynman

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

Einstein was a giant. His head was in the clouds, but his feet were on the ground. But those of us who are not that tall have to choose! — Richard P. Feynman

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 P. Feynman

Today we say that the law of relativity is supposed to be true at all energies, but someday somebody may come along and say how stupid we were. — Richard P. Feynman

Before I was born, my father told my mother, 'If it's a boy, he's going to be a scientist.' — Richard P. Feynman

Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. — Richard P. Feynman

If all of this, all the life of a stream of water, can be nothing but a pile of atoms, how much more is possible? — Richard P. Feynman

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

So far as we know, all the fundamental laws of physics, like Newton's equations, are reversible. — Richard P. Feynman

My friends and I had taken dancing lessons, although none of us would ever admit it. In those depression days, a friend of my mother was trying to make a living by teaching dancing in the evening, in an upstairs dance studio. There was a back door to the place, and she arranged it so the young men could come up through the back way without being seen. — Richard P. Feynman

Start out understanding religion by saying everything is possibly wrong ... As soon as you do that, you start sliding down an edge which is hard to recover from ... — Richard P. Feynman

If I get stuck, I look at a book that tells me how someone else did it. I turn the pages, and then I say, 'Oh, I forgot that bit,' then close the book and carry on. Finally, after you've figured out how to do it, you read how they did it and find out how dumb your solution is and how much more clever and efficient theirs is! — Richard P. Feynman

You can always recognize truth by its beauty and simplicity. — Richard P. Feynman

The present situation in physics is as if we know chess, but we don't know one or two rules. — Richard P. Feynman

Energy is a very subtle concept. It is very, very difficult to get right. — Richard P. Feynman

When a photon comes down, it interacts with electrons throughout the glass, not just on the surface. The photon and electrons do some kind of dance, the net result of which is the same as if the photon hit only on the surface. — Richard P. Feynman

I practiced drawing all the time and became very interested in it. If I was at a meeting that wasn't getting anywhere - like the one where Carl Rogers came to Caltech to discuss with us whether Caltech should develop a psychology department - I would draw the other people. — Richard P. Feynman

If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will leave opportunities for alternatives. — Richard P. Feynman

There is nothing in biology yet found that indicates the inevitability of death. This suggests to me that it is not at all inevitable and that it is only a matter of time before biologists discover what it is that is causing us the trouble. — Richard P. Feynman

As you know, a theory in physics is not useful unless it is able to predict underlined effects which we would otherwise expect. — Richard P. Feynman

God was invented to explain mystery. God is always invented to explain those things that you do not understand. — Richard P. Feynman

I think we can safely assume that no one understands quantum mechanics. — Richard P. Feynman

I learned a lot of different things from different schools. MIT is a very good place ... . It has developed for itself a spirit, so that every member of the whole place thinks that it's the most wonderful place in the world - it's the center, somehow, of scientific and technological development in the United States, if not the world ... and while you don't get a good sense of proportion there, you do get an excellent sense of being with it and in it, and having motivation and desire to keep on — Richard P. Feynman

Have no respect whatsoever for authority; forget who said it and instead look what he starts with, where he ends up, and ask yourself, "Is it reasonable?" — Richard P. Feynman

I wanted very much to learn to draw, for a reason that I kept to myself: I wanted to convey an emotion I have about the beauty of the world. — Richard P. Feynman

Science is uncertain. — Richard P. Feynman

The most important thing I found out from [my father] is that if you asked any question and pursued it deeply enough, then at the end there was a glorious discovery of a general and beautiful kind. — Richard P. Feynman

What we need is imagination, but imagination in a terrible strait-jacket. — Richard P. Feynman

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 one of the theories that we know pretty well. They always want to know things that we don't know. — Richard P. Feynman

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. — Richard P. Feynman

The truth always turns out to be simpler than you thought. — Richard P. Feynman

First figure out why you want the students to learn the subject and what you want them to know, and the method will result more or less by common sense. — Richard P. Feynman

I decided to sell my drawings. However, I didn't want people to buy my drawings because the professor of physics isn't supposed to be able to draw - isn't that wonderful - so I made up a false name. — Richard P. Feynman

We need to teach how doubt is not to be feared but welcomed. It's OK to say, "I don't know." — Richard P. Feynman

When a scientist doesn't know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty darn sure of what the result is going to be, he is still in some doubt. We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of uncertainty-some most unsure, some nearly sure, but none absolutely certain. — Richard P. Feynman

Another thing I must point out is that you cannot prove a vague theory wrong. — Richard P. Feynman

Outside of their particular area of expertise scientists are just as dumb as the next person. — Richard P. Feynman

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

The 'paradox' is only a conflict between reality and your feeling of what reality 'ought to be. — Richard P. Feynman

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

The most obvious characteristic of science is its application: the fact that, as a consequence of science, one has a power to do things. And the effect this power has had need hardly be mentioned. The whole industrial revolution would almost have been impossible without the development of science. — Richard P. Feynman

It is the facts that matter, not the proofs. Physics can progress without the proofs, but we can't go on without the facts ... if the facts are right, then the proofs are a matter of playing around with the algebra correctly. — Richard P. Feynman

From the point of view of basic physics, the most interesting phenomena are, of course, in the new places, the places where the rules do not work - not the places where they do work! That is the way in which we discover new rules. — Richard P. Feynman

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

It is odd, but on the infrequent occasions when I have been called upon in a formal place to play the bongo drums, the introducer never seems to find it necessary to mention that I also do theoretical physics. — Richard P. Feynman

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

What goes on inside a star is better understood than one might guess from the difficulty of having to look at a little dot of light through a telescope, because we can calculate what the atoms in the stars should do in most circumstances. — Richard P. Feynman

Nature's imagination far surpasses our own. — Richard P. Feynman

It appears that there are enormous differences of opinion as to the probability of a failure with loss of vehicle and of human life. The estimates range from roughly 1 in 100 to 1 in 100,000. The higher figures come from the working engineers, and the very low figures from management. — Richard P. Feynman