Quotessence
Home / Authors / Richard P. Feynman
Richard P. Feynman

Richard P. Feynman Quotes

Physicist

Filter quotes by topic

AllScienceIfsPhysicsKnowsThinkingWayPeopleWorldLawMatterMathematicsScientistTheoryTryingDoubtExperimentsWantProblemI CanIdeas

Famous Richard P. Feynman Quotes

“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... How vivid is the claret, pressing its existence into the consciousness that watches it! If our small minds, for some convenience, divide this glass of wine, this universe, into parts - physics, biology, geology, astronomy, psychology, and so on - remember that nature does not know it! So let us put it all back together, not forgetting ultimately what it is for. Let it give us one more final pleasure: drink it and forget it all!”

IfsKnowsGivingWritingMindDoeSaidWholeTogetherRememberUniverseForgetPleasureExistenceConsciousnessWatchesPsychologyPoetDrinkMindfulnessUnderstoodWineFinalsGlassesPhysicsAstronomyBiologyDividesVividForget ItConvenienceBack TogetherGeologyJoyfulnessWine GlassSmall MindsClaret
Author:Richard P. Feynman
Create image

“What is the fundamental hypothesis of science, the fundamental philosophy? We stated it in the first chapter: the sole test of the validity of any idea is experiment. ... If we are told that the same experiment will always produce the same result, that is all very well, but if when we try it, it does not, then it does not. We just have to take what we see, and then formulate all the rest of our ideas in terms of our actual experience.”

IfsTryingFirstsWellsDoeIdeasPhilosophyTermResultsProduceTestsFundamentalsMathExperimentsSoleChaptersHypothesisValidity
Author:Richard P. Feynman
Create image

“The difficulty really is psychological and exists in the perpetual torment that results from your saying to yourself, "But how can it be like that?" which is a reflection of uncontrolled but utterly vain desire to see it in terms of something familiar. ... If you will simply admit that maybe Nature does behave like this, you will find her a delightful, entrancing thing. Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possible avoid it, "But how can it be like that?" because you will get 'down the drain', into a blind alley from which nobody has escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that.”

IfsKnowsDoeScienceDesireTermResultsKnow HowReflectionDifficultyBlindFamiliarPsychologicalVainBehavePerpetualDelightfulTormentDrainsNobody KnowsAlleys
Author:Richard P. Feynman
Create image