Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Richard P. Feynman

Quote by Richard P. Feynman

Work

The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist

This book delves into the thoughts and reflections of a distinguished scientist, weaving together scientific concepts with philosophical musings. It provides a unique perspective on the big questions of existence, the nature of the universe, and the role of science in understanding our place in it. more

Author

Richard P. Feynman
Richard P. Feynman

Richard P. Feynman was a renowned theoretical physicist known for his contributions to quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics. He was also an exceptional physicist in the field of physics education, with popular science books like 'Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!' that have won the hearts of readers. more

You May Also Like

“In fact, the science of thermodynamics began with an analysis, by the great engineer Sadi Carnot, of the problem of how to build the best and most efficient engine, and this constitutes one of the few famous cases in which engineering has contributed to fundamental physical theory. Another example that comes to mind is the more recent analysis of information theory by Claude Shannon. These two analyses, incidentally, turn out to be closely related.”

“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].”

“John von Neumann gave me an interesting idea: that you don't have to be responsible for the world that you're in. So I have developed a very powerful sense of social irresponsibility as a result of von Neumann's advice. It's made me a very happy man ever since. But it was von Neumann who put the seed in that grew into my active irresponsibility!”

“The only way to have real success in science, the field I'm familiar with, is to describe the evidence very carefully without regard to the way you feel it should be. If you have a theory , you must try to explain what's good and what's bad about it equally. In science, you learn a kind of standard integrity and honesty .”