10 quotes
I have to understand the world, you see.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (1985)
Since then I never pay attention to anything by "experts". I calculate everything myself.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (1985)
I wanted very much to learn to draw, for a reason that I kept to myself: I wanted to convey an emotion I have about the beauty of the world.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (1985)
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!
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (1985)
I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. Of course, you only live one life, and you make all your mistakes, and learn what not to do, and that's the end of you.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (1985)
The electron is a theory we use; it is so useful in understanding the way nature works that we can almost call it real.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (1985)
This conference was worse than a Rorschach test: There's a meaningless inkblot, and the others ask you what you think you see, but when you tell them, they start arguing with you!
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (1985)
Finally, I said that I couldn’t see how anyone could be educated by this self-propagating system in which people pass exams, and teach others to pass exams, but nobody knows anything.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (1985)
It's a feeling of awe — of scientific awe — which I felt could be communicated through a drawing to someone who had also had this emotion. It could remind him, for a moment, of this feeling about the glories of the universe.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (1985)
Ordinary fools are all right; you can talk to them, and try to help them out. But pompous fools—guys who are fools and are covering it all over and impressing people as to how wonderful they are with all this hocus pocus—THAT, I CANNOT STAND! An ordinary fool isn’t a faker; an honest fool is all right. But a dishonest fool is terrible!
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (1985)