Richard P. Feynman

“Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.”

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

“There is plenty of room at the bottom.”

“The great secret of creativity is to treat your mind like a garden—you have to plant seeds.”

“It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong.”

“Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter.”

“If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics.”

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

“I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.”

“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.”

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

“Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.”

“You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It's their mistake, not my failing.”

“I'm smart enough to know that I'm dumb.”

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

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

“For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.”

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