Richard P. Feynman Quotes - Page 15

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It's because somebody knows something about it that we can't talk about physics. It's the things that nobody knows anything about we can discuss.

Richard P. Feynman

Physics, Nobody Knows, Knows

Richard P Feynman (2014). “Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman: Adventures of a Curious Character as Told to Ralph Leighton”, p.310, Random House

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I am a successful lecturer in physics for popular audiences. The real entertainment gimmick is the excitement, drama and mystery of the subject matter. People love to learn something, they are 'entertained' enormously by being allowed to understand a little bit of something they never understood before. One must have faith in the subject and in people's interest in it.

Richard P. Feynman

Drama, Real, Successful

Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.301, Princeton University Press

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

Richard P. Feynman

Average, Guy, Claims

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Some things that satisfy the rules of algebra can be interesting to mathematicians even though they don't always represent a real situation.

Richard P. Feynman

Real, Interesting, Mathematics

Richard P. Feynman (2014). “QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter”, p.63, Princeton University Press

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Physicists like to think that all you have to do is say, these are the conditions, now what happens next?

Richard P. Feynman

Thinking, Next, Physics

Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.187, Princeton University Press

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In a way, the Nobel Prize has been something of a pain in the neck, though there was at least one time that I got some fun out of it, Shortly after I won the Prize, Gweneth and I received an invitation from the Brazilian government to be the guests of honor at the Carnaval celebrations in Rio.

Richard P. Feynman

Fun, Pain, Government

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What would happen if we could arrange the atoms one by one the way we want them?

Richard P. Feynman

Atoms, Want, Way

Richard P. Feynman (2005). “The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman”, p.72, Hachette UK

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There is one simplification at least. Electrons behave ... in exactly the same way as photons; they are both screwy, but in exactly in the same way.

Richard P. Feynman

Way, Behave, Electrons

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We are very lucky to be living in an age in which we are still making discoveries. It is like the discovery of America-you only discover it once. The age in which we live is the age in which we are discovering the fundamental laws of nature, and that day will never come again. It is very exciting, it is marvelous, but this excitement will have to go.

Richard P. Feynman

Nature, Science, Discovery

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Any schemes - such as 'think of symmetry laws', or 'put the information in mathematical form', or 'guess equations'- are known to everybody now, and they are all tried all the time. When you are stuck, the answer cannot be one of these, because you will have tried these right away...The next scheme, the new discovery, is going to be made in a completely different way.

Richard P. Feynman

Thinking, Discovery, Law

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From a long view of the history of mankind, seen from, say, ten thousand years from now, there can be little doubt that the most significant event of the 19th century will be judged as Maxwell's discovery of the laws of electrodynamics. The American Civil War will pale into provincial insignificance in comparison with this important scientific event of the same decade.

Richard P. Feynman

War, Discovery, Views

Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.13, Princeton University Press

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A poet once said, "The whole universe is in a glass of wine." We will probably never know in what sense he meant that, for poets do not write to be understood. But it is true that if we look at a glass of wine closely enough we see the entire universe.

Richard P. Feynman

Writing, Wine, Glasses

Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, Matthew Sands (2013). “The Feynman Lectures on Physics, vol. 1 for tablets”, Basic Books

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The present situation in physics is as if we know chess, but we don't know one or two rules.

Richard P. Feynman

Science, Two, Chess

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Some people think Wheeler's gotten crazy in his later years, but he's always been crazy.

Richard P. Feynman

Crazy, Thinking, Years

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We scientists are clever — too clever — are you not satisfied? Is four square miles in one bomb not enough? Men are still thinking. Just tell us how big you want it!

Richard P. Feynman

Clever, Men, Thinking

Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.260, Princeton University Press

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People are always asking for the latest developments in the unification of this theory with that theory, and they don't give us a chance to tell them anything about what we know pretty well. They always want to know the things we don't know.

Richard P. Feynman

People, Giving, Asking

Richard P. Feynman (2014). “QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter”, p.3, Princeton University Press

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One does not, by knowing all the physical laws as we know them today, immediately obtain an understanding of anything much. I love only nature, and I hate mathematicians.

Richard P. Feynman

Hate, Law, Knowing

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We can deduce, often, from one part of physics like the law of gravitation, a principle which turns out to be much more valid than the derivation.

Richard P. Feynman

Law, Principles, Physics

"The Character of Physical Law". Book by Richard P. Feynman, 1965.

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When the problem [quantum chromodynamics] is finally solved, it will all be by imagination. Then there will be some big thing about the great way it was done. But it's simple -it will all be by imagination, and persistence.

Richard P. Feynman

Learning, Persistence, Simple

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I am going to tell you what nature behaves like. If you will simply admit that maybe she does behave like this, you will find her a delightful, entrancing thing. Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possibly avoid it, 'But how can it be like that?' ...Nobody knows how it can be like that.

Richard P. Feynman

Science, Doe, Physics

"The Character of Physical Law". Book by Richard P. Feynman, 1965.

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On the contrary, it's because somebody knows something about it that we can't talk about physics . It's the things that nobody knows anything about that we can discuss. We can talk about the weather; we can talk about social problems; we can talk about psychology; we can talk about international finance gold transfers we can't talk about, because those are understood so it's the subject that nobody knows anything about that we can all talk about!

Richard P. Feynman

Weather, Psychology, Gold

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!". Book by Richard P. Feynman, 1985.

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Phenomena complex-laws simple....Know what to leave out.

Richard P. Feynman

Simple, Law, Simplicity

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I don't think that the laws can be considered to be like God because they have been figured out.

Richard P. Feynman

Thinking, Law, Atheism

"Superstrings: A Theory of Everything?". Book by Paul C. W. Davies and Julian R. Brown, 1988.

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Everybody who reasons carefully about anything is making a contribution ... and if you abstract it away and send it to the Department of Mathematics they put it in books.

Richard P. Feynman

Book, Reason, Mathematics

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It is to be emphasized that no matter how many [amplitude] arrows we draw, add, or multiply, our objective is to calculate a single final arrow for the event . Mistakes are often made by physics students at first because they do not keep this important point in mind. They work for so long analyzing events involving a single photon that they begin to think that the arrow is somehow associated with the photon [rather than with the event].

Richard P. Feynman

Mistake, Thinking, Arrows

Richard P. Feynman (2014). “QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter”, p.75, Princeton University Press

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Born: May 11, 1918
Died: February 15, 1988
Occupation: Physicist
Cite this Page: Citation

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