Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Richard Feynman's Genius!

Last night I had the priviledge of attending a talk by Lawrence Krauss on Richard Feynman! I was impressed with Richard Feynman's personality and his curiosity! He was a true genius and a scientist at heart! Some of these quotes give a glimpse into a mind that was "open" and curious, not set and determined !!! He was "all over the place" in his lectures and his thinking, unlike other methodical scientists that lecture from a beginning and come to a conclusive end!

Here are some of his quotes!


"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."



"Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible."


— Richard P. Feynman

"Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough. Work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best. Don't think about what you want to be, but what you want to do. Keep up some kind of a minimum with other things so that society doesn't stop you from doing anything at all."


— Richard P. Feynman

"What I am going to tell you about is what we teach our physics students in the third or fourth year of graduate school... It is my task to convince you not to turn away because you don't understand it. You see my physics students don't understand it... That is because I don't understand it. Nobody does."


— Richard P. Feynman (QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter)

"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts."


We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress."


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






I wonder how many people really think like this? I think it is refreshing! It is certainly engaging. And wouldn't one feel that one could "be" in that kind of "Presence"? YES!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love all these qoutes...richard feynman is an inspiration for me..

Angie Van De Merwe said...

Anon,
That is good that he is your inspiration, because it will help you to continue to pursue, and invest time and effort, even when you "hit a brick wall" in research! And it continues to encourage the vastness that is "out there" as to knowledge itself, and LIFE!!!

But, Anon, could you tell me what YOUR perception of Feynman is? and how he particularly inspires you? I really would be interested to know!

Anonymous said...

We own RF's Lectures and other books, and I have used his material in teaching. Think the world of his approach to science, and value his elevation of creativity in the scientific process.

Also know a bit about the man, and propose you look a bit more into his life, beyond his words (and those who make a career out of talking about him). Great pragmatic scientist. Inspiring teacher. But not the sort to hold up as a role model for much besides theoretical and general physics, and questions of the evolution of scientific methodology.

In short, he's no "John Lennon" (that is, the legend we hold up as representing JW Lennon), any more than John Winston was himself.

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