Richard P. Feynman Quotes Collection
Born: 11 May 1918, New York, United States
Died: 15 February 1988, Los Angeles, California, United States
Richard Phillips Feynman was an American physicist known for the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as work in particle physics (he proposed the parton model). For his contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman was a joint recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965, together with Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga. Feynman developed a widely used pictorial representation scheme for the mathematical expressions governing the behavior of subatomic particles, which later became known as Feynman diagrams. During his lifetime and after his death, Feynman became one of the most publicly known scientists in the world.
He assisted in the development of the atomic bomb and was a member of the panel that investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. In addition to his work in theoretical physics, Feynman has been credited with pioneering the field of quantum computing, and introducing the concept of nanotechnology (creation of devices at the molecular scale). He held the Richard Chace Tolman professorship in theoretical physics at Caltech.
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“Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible.” ― Richard Feynmann
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.” ― Richard P. Feynman
“Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough.” ― Richard P. Feynman
“Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.” ― Richard P. Feynman
“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 P. Feynman, "What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character
“I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned.” ― Richard Feynman
“The highest forms of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion.” ― Richard P. Feynman
“Physics isn't the most important thing. Love is.” ― Richard P. Feynman
“We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.” ― Richard P. Feynman
“All the time you're saying to yourself, 'I could do that, but I won't,' — which is just another way of saying that you can't.” ― Richard P. Feynman, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character
“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
“Science is like sex: sometimes something useful comes out, but that is not the reason we are doing it. ” ― Richard P. Feynman
“What I cannot create, I do not understand.” ― Richard P. Feynman
“Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry.” ― Richard P. Feynman
“I always do that, get into something and see how far I can go.” ― Richard P. Feynman, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character
“Why make yourself miserable saying things like, "Why do we have such bad luck? What has God done to us? What have we done to deserve this?" - all of which, if you understand reality and take it completely into your heart, are irrelevant and unsolvable. They are just things that nobody can know. Your situation is just an accident of life.” ― Richard P. Feynman, What Do You Care What Other People Think?
“I think a power to do something is of value. Whether the result is a good thing or a bad thing depends on how it is used, but the power is a value.” ― Richard P. Feynman, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist
“Everything is interesting if you go into it deeply enough” ― Richard Feynman
“It doesn't make a difference how beautiful your guess is. It doesn't make a difference how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is. If it disagrees with experiment, it's wrong.” ― Richard Feynman, The Feynman Lectures on Physics
“Never confuse education with intelligence, you can have a PhD and still be an idiot.” ― Richard P. Feynman
“Keep an open mind - but not so open that your brain falls out.” ― Richard Feynman
“You keep on learning and learning, and pretty soon you learn something no one has learned before.” ― Richard 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 Feynman, Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics By Its Most Brilliant Teacher
“Out of the cradle onto the dry land here it is standing: atoms with consciousness; matter with curiosity. Stands at the sea wonders at wondering: I a universe of atoms an atom in the universe.” ― Richard P. Feynman, The Quotable Feynman
“If u think u can u may if u think u can't u r right” ― Richard Feynman
“I am always looking, like a child, for wonders I know I am going to find. Maybe not every time, but every once in a while.” ― Richard Feynman, "What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character
“that in order to progress we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt.” ― Richard P. Feynman, What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character
“The ultimate test of your knowledge is your capacity to convey it to another.” ― Richard Feynman
“Don't just teach your students to read. • Teach them to question what they read, what they study. • Teach them to doubt. • Teach them to think. • Teach them to make mistakes and learn from them. • Teach them how to understand something. • Teach them how to teach others.” ― Richard Feynman
“In talking about the impact of ideas in one field on ideas in another field, one is always apt to make a fool of oneself. In these days of specialization there are too few people who have such a deep understanding of two departments of our knowledge that they do not make fools of themselves in one or the other.” ― Richard Feynman, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist
“to solve a problem that we have never solved before, we must leave the door to the unknown ajar.” ― Richard P. Feynman, What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character
“You know, the most amazing thing happened to me tonight. I was coming here, on the way to the lecture, and I came in through the parking lot. And you won't believe what happened. I saw a car with the license plate ARW 357. Can you imagine? Of all the millions of license plates in the state, what was the chance that I would see that particular one tonight? Amazing!” ― Richard P. Feynman
“I have approximate answers, possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I'm not absolutely sure about anything.” ― Richard Feynman