Richard Feynman

Physics American 1918 – 1988 323 quotes

Nobel laureate known for path integrals and Feynman diagrams

Quotes by Richard Feynman

I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.

Speech 1965

What I cannot create, I do not understand.

Notebook 1960

The pleasure of finding things out is one of the greatest pleasures in life.

BBC Interview 1981

I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned.

Interview 1981

Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.

Feynman Lectures on Physics 1960

Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so that each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry.

Feynman Lectures on Physics 1963

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.

Messenger Lectures 1964

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

Cargo Cult Science Speech 1974

Fall in love with some activity, and do it! 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.

Letter to a student 1985

You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It's their mistake, not my problem.

Letter 1985

Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible.

Letter to a student 1985

The highest forms of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion.

Interview 1981

I learned from her that every woman is worried about her looks, no matter how beautiful she is.

What Do You Care What Other People Think? 1985

Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars – mere glimmers of gas particles. But I think it adds. Knowing a little about them makes them so much more interesting.

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out 1981

I'd hate to die twice. It's so boring.

Last words 1988

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

Interview 1960

If you expected the world to be fair, you would be constantly disappointed.

Letter 1985

The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.

Interview 1970

We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we struggle to come to terms with this reality.

Feynman Lectures on Physics 1963

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

Interview 1981