Richard Feynman Quotes

American theoretical physicist (1918–1988)

Richard Phillips Feynman (May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist. He is known for the work he did in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, and in particle physics, for which he proposed the parton model. For his contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 jointly with Julian Schwinger and Shin'ichirō Tomonaga. Feynman developed a widely used pictorial representation scheme for the mathematical expressions describing the behavior of subatomic particles, which later became known as Feynman diagrams. During his lifetime, Feynman became one of the best-known scientists in the world.

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Pen Names: Ofey

Native Name: Richard Phillips Feynman

Alternative Names: Feynman • Dick Feynman • Richard P. Feynman

From Wikidata (CC0)

Showing quotes in randomized order to avoid selection bias. Click Popular for most popular quotes.

So I have just one wish for you—the good luck to be somewhere where you are free to maintain the kind of integrity I have described, and where you do not feel forced by a need to maintain your position in the organization, or financial support, or so on, to lose your integrity. May you have that freedom.

To every man is given the key to the gates of heaven. The same key opens the gates of hell.

And so it is with science.

Each piece, or part, of the whole of nature is always merely an approximation to the complete truth, or the complete truth so far as we know it. In fact, everything we know is only some kind of approximation, because we know that we do not know all the laws as yet. Therefore, things must be learned only to be unlearned again or, more likely, to be corrected. ... The test of all knowledge is experiment. Experiment is the sole judge of scientific “truth”.

Prof. Wheeler was called away last night so I took over his course in mechanics for the day. I spent all last night preparing. It went very nicely and smoothly. It was a good experience — -I guess I'll do a lot of that.

If we were to name the most powerful assumption of all, which leads one on and on in an attempt to understand life, it is that all things are made of atoms, and that everything that living things do can be understood in terms of the jigglings and wigglings of atoms.

There were a lot of fools at that conference — pompous fools — and pompous fools drive me up the wall. Ordinary fools are all right; you can talk to them, and try to help them out. But pompous fools — guys who are fools and are covering it all over and impressing people as to how wonderful they are with all this hocus pocus — THAT, I CANNOT STAND!

If u think u can u may
if u think u can't u r right

I start with the simplest phenomena... the first... is the phenomena of light. Early on, when light was being investigated by Newton, he thought that the light that came into the eye was like a rain of particles, like rain drops... [M]ore light meant more particles... and one kind of color light would one kind of rain drop and another... would be a different kind of rain drop... over the whole spectrum... and if we would some day have sufficiently delicate instruments, we would presumably discover that it was like a pattering... [I]t would go click, click, click when the particles came raining down. ...He also discovered ...the light from the soap bubbles or light from thin films... The brightness of reflection... depends on how thick the film is. As the film gets thicker and thinner, it gets brighter and darker. That was hard for him to understand from the point of view of particles. Finally a theory of waves was invented which explained that very easily... until we measured light very precisely... and lo and behold, to our horror, it behaved like particles.

But if you’ve ever worked with computers, you understand the disease — the delight in being able to see how much you can do.

The prize is in the pleasure of finding the thing out, the kick in the discovery, the observation that other people use it [my work] — those are the real things, the honors are unreal to me.

While I am describing to you how Nature works, you won't understand why Nature works that way. But you see, nobody understands that.

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.

"In its efforts to learn as much as possible about nature, modern physics has found that certain things can never be "known" with certainty. Much of our knowledge must always remain uncertain. The most we can know is in terms of probabilities."

Ordinary fools are all right; you can talk to them, and try to help them out. But pompous fools-guys who are fools and are covering it all over and impressing people as to how wonderful they are with all this hocus pocus-THAT, I CANNOT STAND! An ordinary fool isn't a faker; an honest fool is all right. But a dishonest fool is terrible!

Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.

Richard Feynman Quotes

Enhance Your Quote Experience