Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman: Adventures of a Curious Character

by Richard P. Feynman

In science, it’s sort of general and large: You don’t know the individuals who have appreciated it directly.

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!

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

So I have just one wish for you—the good luck to be somewhere where you are free to maintain the kind of integrity I have described, and where you do not feel forced by a need to maintain your position in the organization, or financial support, or so on, to lose your integrity. May you have that freedom.