Prof. Feynman

A universe of atoms, an atom in the universe. Tribute to the great explainer. Tweets about Science and Wisdom. Portrait by L.V Patten.

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

I was an ordinary person who studied hard. There's no miracle people.

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

If our small minds, for some convenience, divide this universe, into parts — physics, biology, geology, astronomy, psychology, and so on — remember that nature does not know it!

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

“In mathematics the art of asking questions is more valuable than solving problems."

- Georg Cantor (1845 - 1918)

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

Education isn’t about knowing everything. It’s about understanding that there is always more to learn and discover.

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

Question every assumption you make.

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

To those who do not know mathematics it is difficult to get across a real feeling as to the beauty, the deepest beauty, of nature. If you want to learn about nature, to appreciate nature, it is necessary to understand the language that she speaks in.

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

You should, in science, believe logic and arguments, carefully drawn, and not authorities.

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

Work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best.

Don't think about what you want to be, but what you want to do.

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

The most important aspect of creativity and innovation is not being afraid to fail.

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

Scientific knowledge is an enabling power to do either good or bad — but it does not carry instructions on how to use it.

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

If you think you understand it, try building it.

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

Doubt is not to be feared, but welcomed and discussed.

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. Fall in love with some activity and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about and it doesn't matter.

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

The fun part of knowledge is realizing how much you were wrong.

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

The more you learn, the more you realize how little you know.

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

One of the first interesting experiences I had in this project at Princeton was meeting great men. I had never met very many great men before. But there was an evaluation committee that had to try to help us along, and help us ultimately decide which way we were going to separate the uranium. This committee had men like Compton and Tolman and Smyth and Urey and Rabi and Oppenheimer on it. I would sit in because I understood the theory of how our process of separating isotopes worked, and so they'd ask me questions and talk about it. In these discussions one man would make a point. Then Compton, for example, would explain a different point of view. He would say it should be this way, and he was perfectly right. Another guy would say, well, maybe, but there's this other possibility we have to consider against it.

So everybody is disagreeing, all around the table. I am surprised and disturbed that Compton doesn't repeat and emphasize his point. Finally at the end, Tolman, who's the chairman, would say, "Well, having heard all these arguments, I guess it's true that Compton's argument is the best of all, and now we have to go ahead."

It was such a shock to me to see that a committee of men could present a whole lot of ideas, each one thinking of a new facet, while remembering what the other fella said, so that, at the end, the decision is made as to which idea was the best -- summing it all up -- without having to say it three times. These were very great men indeed.

-- from the First Annual Santa Barbara Lectures on Science and Society, University of California at Santa Barbara (1975)

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

If you're the smartest person in the room, then you're in the wrong room.

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

No idea is true just because someone says so. Test ideas by the evidence gained from observation and experiment.

If a favorite idea fails a well-designed test, it's wrong.

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

It's not the lack of intelligence, it's the lack of focus that is stopping you.

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

Instead it has a duty to its citizens to maintain their freedom, to let those citizens contribute to the further adventure and the development of the human race.

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

No government has the right to:

• decide on the truth of scientific principles,
• determine the aesthetic values of artistic creations,
• limit the forms of literary or artistic expression,
• pronounce on the validity of historic, religious or philosophical doctrines.