Richard P. Feynman Quotes

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.

Physics isn't the most important thing. Love is.

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

But there is nothing in biology yet found that indicates the inevitability of death.

We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.

Science is what we have learned about how to keep from fooling ourselves.

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 couldn't claim that I was smarter than sixty-five other guys-but the average of sixty-five other guys, certainly!

Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.

I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.

Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.

If you thought that science was certain - well, that is just an error on your part.

What I am going to tell you about is what we teach our physics students in the third or fourth year of graduate school... It is my task to convince you not to turn away because you don't understand it. You see my physics students don't understand it... That is because I don't understand it. Nobody does.

Science is like sex: sometimes something useful comes out, but that is not the reason we are doing it.

We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.

Philosophy of science is about as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds.

I have no responsibility to live up to what others expect of me. That's their mistake, not my failing.

[Quantum mechanics] describes nature as absurd from the point of view of common sense. And yet it fully agrees with experiment. So I hope you can accept nature as She is - absurd.