Famous Quotes & Sayings

Richard P. Feynman

I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong. If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will leave opportunities for alternatives. We will not become enthusiastic for the fact, the knowledge, the absolute truth of the day, but remain always uncertain … In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar.

Richard P. Feynman

Unless a thing can be defined by measurement, it has no place in a theory. And since an accurate value of the momentum of a localized particle cannot be defined by measurement it therefore has no place in the theory.

Richard P. Feynman

It is odd, but on the infrequent occasions when I have been called upon in a formal place to play the bongo drums, the introducer never seems to find it necessary to mention that I also do theoretical physics.

Richard P. Feynman

Science is a way to teach how something gets to be known, what is not known, to what extent things are known (for nothing is known absolutely), how to handle doubt and uncertainty, what the rules of evidence are, how to think about things so that judgments can be made, how to distinguish truth from fraud, and from show.

Richard P. Feynman

Scientists are explorers. Philosophers are tourists.

Richard P. Feynman

The difficulty really is psychological and exists in the perpetual torment that results from your saying to yourself, "But how can it be like that?" which is a reflection of uncontrolled but utterly vain desire to see it in terms of something familiar. ... If you will simply admit that maybe [Nature] does behave like this, you will find her a delightful, entrancing thing. Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possible avoid it, "But how can it be like that?" because you will get 'down the drain', into a blind alley from which nobody has escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that.

Richard P. Feynman

If you thought that science was certain - well, that is just an error on your part.

Richard Dawkins

Cheetah genes cooperate with cheetah genes but not with camel genes, and vice versa. This is not because cheetah genes, even in the most poetic sense, see any virtue in the preservation of the cheetah species. They are not working to save the cheetah from extinction like some molecular World Wildlife Fund.

Richard Whately

To teach one who has no curiosity to learn, is to sow a field without ploughing it.

Leon Botstein

I know nothing about this subject, but I do have prejudices, which I am more than happy to share with you.

Elizabeth Blackwell

Prejudice is more violent the blinder it is ...

Donald Kagan

You have to liberate yourself first from the prejudices of the world in which you live.

Aleister Crowley

The sin which is unpardonable is knowingly and wilfully to reject truth, to fear knowledge lest that knowledge pander not to thy prejudices.

Albert Camus

Marxism is not scientific: at the best, it has scientific prejudices.

Nicolas Malebranche

Prejudices are not easily got rid of as an old coat which is no longer thought of.

Abdu'l Baha

Prejudices of any kind are the destroyers of human happiness & welfare.

Jena Malone

If they made 'Pride & Prejudice 2,' Lydia would become more of a tragic figure,

George R. R. Martin

The prejudice is still there, but it's breaking down. You have writers like Michael Chabon and The Yiddish Policemen's Union. He's a writer who's determined to break down genre barriers. He's done amazing things.

Jim Baker

He said he wouldn't sell out to the special interests, and it's my opinion that he has,

Umberto Eco

It is obvious that the newspaper produces the opinion of the readers.

Jim Rogers

Acknowledge the complexity of the world and resist the impression that you easily understand it. People are too quick to accept conventional wisdom, because it sounds basically true and it tends to be reinforced by both their peers and opinion leaders, many of whome have never looked at whether the facts support the received wisdom. It's a basic fact of life that many things "everybody knows" turn out to be wrong.

Luther Burbank

All my work has come about through a change in my earlier opinion of religion.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Power is founded upon opinion.

Emmanuil Kaidanov

It's nice, but it is the opinion of those people who take the poll.

Lonnie Donegan

My original opinion still stands. I don't think he should have put it out.

Joey Logano

If you don't really know someone, everyone forms an opinion. That's part of life.

Moby

It's almost like a sign of mental illness to base your self-worth on the opinions of complete strangers, you know?