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!

Education of Heads and Hearts

Education is about inquiry and openness. But, education is limited when heads or hearts are closed. How do heads or hearts become closed?

Heads are closed when academic knowledge disconnects head from heart, while hearts are closed when heads are not engaged! Both aspects of "man" should be affirmed, otherwise, there will be a paternalistic attitude toward another.

Paternalistic attitudes toward others are heads that believe others have no heads, and hearts that believe that others have no hearts. This attitude is dangerous and damaging when power is engaged with these "certain views". Justice is distorted with attitudes like this.

What happens in education when these absolute heads and hearts combine to "teach" others, while not open to learning themselves? It reminds me of Paul's rebuke to the Jews in Romans. "Do you seek to teach and not teach yourselves?"...we all are blinded by our own sense of superiority. This is what prejuidice is about and it limits educational endeavors, because of closed minds and hearts. Hearts and heads who are hardened by their sense of certainty!