Happy birthday, Richard Feynman (May 11, 1918 - February 15, 1988)
[I]f you've got to add the word "science" to the name of the field then it ain't one.
[Y]ou cannot prove a vague theory wrong.
A great deal more is known than has been proved.
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.
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.
God was invented to explain mystery. God is always invented to explain those things that you do not understand.
How can a man of integrity get along in Washington?
I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy.
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.
I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.
I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.
If I could explain it to the average person, I wouldn't have been worth the Nobel Prize.
Looking back at the worst times, it always seems that they were times in which there were people who believed with absolute faith and absolute dogmatism in something. And they were so serious in this matter that they insisted that the rest of the world agree with them. And then they would do things that were directly inconsistent with their own beliefs in order to maintain that what they said was true.
My life changed forever the day I realized I was not responsible for how others see me.
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.
Physics is to math what sex is to masturbation.
Science is a lot like sex. Sometimes something useful comes of it, but that's not the reason we're doing it.
Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts.
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself- and you are the easiest person to fool.
The real question of government versus private enterprise is argued on too philosophical and abstract a basis. Theoretically, planning may be good. But nobody has ever figured out the cause of government stupidity and until they do (and find the cure) all ideal plans will fall into quicksand.
The theoretical broadening which comes from having many humanities subjects on the campus is offset by the general dopiness of the people who study these things...
The truth always turns out to be simpler than you thought.
There are 1011 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.
There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you play with them.
We've learned from experience that the truth will come out.
What I cannot create, I do not understand.
What one fool can do, another can too.
Categories: Quotes of the day, Richard Feynman
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