Richard Feynman

"I don't know what's the matter with people: they don't learn by understanding, they learn by some other way — by rote or something. Their knowledge is so fragile!"

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

"You can't fool nature."

"I think nature's imagination Is so much greater than man's, she's never going to let us relax"

"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."

"If you thought you were trying to find out more about it because you're gonna get an answer to some deep philosophical question...you may be wrong! It may be that you can't get an answer to that particular question by finding out more about the character of nature. But my interest in science is to simply find out about the world."

"[Doubt] is not a new idea; this is the idea of the age of reason. This is the philosophy that guided the men who made the democracy that we live under. The idea that no one really knew how to run a government led to the idea that we should arrange a system by which new ideas could be developed, tried out, and tossed out if necessary, with more new ideas bought in - a trial-and-error system. This method was a result of the fact that science was already showing itself to be a successful venture at the end of the eighteenth century. Even then it was clear to socially minded people that the openness of possibilities was an opportunity, and that doubt and discussion were essential to progress into the unknown. If we want to solve a problem that we have never solved before, we must leave the door to the unknown ajar...doubt is not to be feared, but welcomed and discussed."

"[Quantum mechanics] describes nature as absurd from the point of view of common sense. And yet it fully agrees with experiment. So I hope you can accept nature as She is - absurd."

"I have no responsibility to live up to what others expect of me. That's their mistake, not my failing."

"Philosophy of science is about as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds."

"So my antagonist said, "Is it impossible that there are flying saucers? Can you prove that it's impossible" "No", I said, "I can't prove it's impossible. It's just very unlikely". At that he said, "You are very unscientific. If you can't prove it impossible then how can you say that it's unlikely" But that is the way that is scientific. It is scientific only to say what is more likely and what less likely, and not to be proving all the time the possible and impossible."

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."

"Science is like sex: sometimes something useful comes out, but that is not the reason we are doing it."

"I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something."

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

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

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

"We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress."

"If you thought that science was certain - well, that is just an error on your part."

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