Prof. Feynman

I... a universe of atoms, an atom in the universe.

You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish, or to be like they expect you to be. It's their mistake, not your failing.

There’s a pleasure in recognising old things from a new viewpoint.

The most remarkable equation in math.

Don't accept everything you hear as truth. Be critical and evaluate what you believe in.

i) write down the problem; ii) think very hard; iii) write down the answer.

“God is a mathematician of very high order.” — P. Dirac

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

We have this terrible struggle to try to explain things to people who have no reason to want to know.

You don’t like it, go somewhere else! To another universe, where the rules are simpler.

The universe is bigger than your view of the universe. There's always room for a new idea.

You don’t measure knowledge by how much you know, but by how much more you’re willing to learn.

If you want to learn about nature, to appreciate nature, it is necessary to understand the language that she speaks in. The language is mathematics.

I believe that a scientist looking at non-scientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy.

The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.

If you think you understand it, try building it.

Your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Every good theory starts with a guess and ends with a thousand more.

Compare less. Reflect more.

Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.

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

We are not to tell nature what she’s gotta be. She's always got better imagination than we have.

You don't do science for the awards and honors, you do it for the fun of it.

Intelligence isn't the ability to remember and repeat, like they teach you in school. It is the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use our knowledge to adapt to new situations.

If you have any talent, any occupation that delights you, do it, and do it to the hilt. Don't ask why or what difficulties you may get into.

The most exciting phrase in science isn’t 'Eureka!'—it’s 'Hmm, that’s funny...'

The only real failure in science is pretending you have all the answers.

If you wanna be a good teacher, teach open-mindedness, enthusiasm, inquisitiveness, heuristics, and values.

The deepest questions lead to more questions, not answers.

Just because you ignore the facts, doesn't mean they cease to exist.

The things that matter are honesty, independence, willingness to admit ignorance.

If we want to solve a problem that we have never solved before, we must leave the door to the unknown ajar.

Knowledge is like an ocean, vast and infinite. The further you venture, the deeper you realize it goes. Yet, if you only stand at the shore, you may falsely believe you've seen its entirety.

Genius doesn’t come from knowing all the answers—it comes from embracing uncertainty and following where it leads.

The same equations have the same solutions.

The "paradox" is only a conflict between reality and your feeling of what reality "ought to be."

The idea of quantum mechanics that I want to describe now is a positive thing. It's a way that we actually use to make calculations and understand nature. Excuse me, to make calculations! We really don't understand it very well... Understanding real nature, we are unable to do.

Our imagination is stretched to the utmost, not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really there, but just to comprehend those things which are there.

If students cannot learn the way you teach, teach them the way they learn.

A chemist froze himself at -273.15°C, everyone said he was crazy but he was 0K.

Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in. -- Isaac Asimov

Embrace the uncertainty.

Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry.

I've very often made mistakes in my physics by thinking the theory isn't as good as it really is, thinking that there are lots of complications that are going to spoil it - an attitude that anything can happen, in spite of what you're pretty sure should happen.

The joy isn’t in knowing — it’s in figuring out.

If you want to understand something, break it and see what stops working.

Every breakthrough starts with someone asking a “stupid” question.

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

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

If the theory is beautiful but the data hates it, trust the data.

The highest forms of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion.