The Meaning of It All Quotes

“WE ARE ALL SAD when we think of the wondrous potentialities that human beings seem to have and when we contrast these potentialities with the small accomplishments that we have. Again and again people have thought that we could do much better.”
― Richard Feynman, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist

“That is the principle of science. If there is an exception to any rule, and if it can be proved by observation, that rule is wrong.”
― Richard Feynman, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist

“Средностатистическият индивид не си дава сметка колко огромен е броят на възможните неща в света. Освен това той не е наясно колко много от възможните неща не се случват. Няма как всичко, което е възможно, да се случи. Разнообразието в света е толкова голямо, че ако си мислим за нещо като възможно, то най-вероятно не е вярно. Всъщност стигаме до един основен принцип в теоретичната физика: каквото и да си мисли човек, най-често то не е вярно.”
― Richard Feynman, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist

“Trying to understand the way nature works involves a most terrible test of human reasoning ability.

It involves subtle trickery, beautiful tightropes of logic on which

One has to walk in order not to make a mistake in predicting what will happen.”
― Richard P. Feynman , The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist

“Have you read anywhere, by any poet, anything about time that compares with real time, with the long, slow process of evolution?”
― Richard P. Feynman, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist

“But, of course, a child won’t learn what you teach him.”
― Richard P. Feynman, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist

“No government has the right to decide on the truth of scientific principles, nor to prescribe in any way the character of the questions investigated. Neither may a government determine the aesthetic value of artistic creations, nor limit the forms of literary or artistic expression. Nor should it pronounce on the validity of economic, historic, religious, or philosophical doctrines. Instead it has a duty to its citizens to maintain the freedom, to let those citizens contribute to the further adventure and the development of the human race. Thank you.”
― Richard P. Feynman, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist

“This whole business of statistical sampling and the determining of the properties of people by this manner is a very serious business altogether. It’s coming into its own, but it’s used very often, and we have to be very, very careful with it. It’s used for choice of personnel—by giving examinations to people—marriage counseling, and things of this kind. It’s used to determine whether people get into college, in a way that I am not in favor of, but I will leave my arguments on this. I will address them to the people who decide who gets into Caltech. And after I have had my arguments, I will come back and tell you something about it. But this has one serious feature, among others, aside from the difficulties of sampling.”
― Richard Feynman, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist

“You say, “It’s not very important. The advertisers have to sell their wares,” and so on and so on. On the other hand, the whole idea that the average person is unintelligent is a very dangerous idea. Even if it’s true, it shouldn’t be dealt with the way it’s dealt with.”
― Richard Feynman, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist

“It is a great adventure to contemplate the universe, beyond man, to contemplate what it would be like without man, as it was in a great part of its long history and as it is in a great majority of places. When this objective view is finally attained, and the mystery and majesty of matter are fully appreciated, to then turn the objective eye back on man viewed as matter, to view life as part of this universal mystery of greatest depth, is to sense an experience which is very rare, and very exciting.”
― Richard Feynman, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist

“The interpretation of a result is an example. To take a trivial instance, there is a famous joke about a man who complains to a friend of a mysterious phenomenon. The white horses on his farm eat more than the black horses. He worries about this and cannot understand it, until his friend suggests that maybe he has more white horses than black ones.”
― Richard Feynman, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist

“It is interesting that this thoroughness, which is a virtue, is often misunderstood. When someone says a thing has been done scientifically, often all he means is that it has been done thoroughly. I have heard people talk of the “scientific” extermination of the Jews in Germany. There was nothing scientific about it. It was only thorough.”
― Richard Feynman, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist

“and dynamic dance.”
― Richard Feynman, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist