Feynman, Richard

"I think that it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong."

"Shut up and calculate!"

"All of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."

"The first thing you must learn is that the most important principle for the development of science is to assume that all things are possible until proven otherwise."

"If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration."

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there."

"One of the ways of stopping science would be only to do experiments in the region where you know the law."

"If we ever reach the point where we think we thoroughly understand who we are and why we are here, it will be time to worry."

"Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."

"The only way to have real success in science is to attack problems of real importance."

"You can't make something intelligent; you can only make something complicated."

"There is pleasure in recognizing old things from a new viewpoint."

"What I want to do is to learn from nature how nature works at its most fundamental level."

"I enjoy working on the problem – which is better than to enjoy the answer."

"It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, if it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong."

"The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce, and gives him some of the grace and nobility of a more advanced creature."

"I think the principle that I believe is more important than anything else is that the thing that doesn't fit is the thing that's most interesting."

"Of all the scientific problems which might be undertaken by physicists in the future, none seem to me more fascinating and fundamentally important than the nature of the electron."

"It is nice to have control over these various things."

"The world looks so different after learning science."

"There's plenty of room at the bottom."

"I had the advantage of having very good teachers."

"I think the problem with all the talk about science is that nobody is listening."

"You see, one thing I never could believe was that all the time I was busy making a big effort to learn these things, the people were at the same time saying I must be wasting my time."

"The way to do is to be."

"I don't know anything, but I do know that everything is interesting."

"Science is what we do to keep from lying to ourselves."

"The principle of science is you do not protect it."

"Imagine a world without mathematics!"

"I learned very early the difference between knowing the name and knowing the thing itself."