Richard Feynman citations

Page 3

If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generations of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the atomic hypothesis (or the atomic fact, or whatever you wish to call it) that all things are made of atoms little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence, you will see, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just a little imagination and thinking are applied.
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[...] we have always had (secret, secret, close the doors!) we have always have had a great deal of difficulty in understanding the world view that quantum mechanics represents. At least I do, because I'm an old enough man that I haven't got to the point that this stuff is obvious to me. Okay, I still get nervous with it. And therefore, some of the youngest students...you know how it always is, every new idea, it takes a generation or two until it becomes obvious that there's no real problem. It has not yet become obvious to me that there is no real problem. I cannot define the real problem, therefore I suspect there's no real problem, but I'm not sure there's no real problem.
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sur le fait qu'il existe de nombreuses manières de formuler une même théorie, Discours de réception du prix Nobel.
Citation rapportée

Source: The Character of Physical Law (1965), chapter 1, “The Law of Gravitation,” p. 34

QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (1985)

same passage in transcript: video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2NnquxdWFk&t=16m46s
The Character of Physical Law (1965)
Variante: In general we look for a new law by the following process. First we guess it. Then we compute the consequences of the guess to see what would be implied if this law that we guessed is right. Then we compare the result of the computation to nature, with experiment or experience, compare it directly with observation, to see if it works. If it disagrees with experiment it is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It does not make any difference how beautiful your guess is. It does not make any difference how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is – if it disagrees with experiment it is wrong. That is all there is to it.

Variante: I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.
Source: The Character of Physical Law (1965), chapter 6, “Probability and Uncertainty — the Quantum Mechanical View of Nature,” p. 129

volume II; lecture 26, "Lorentz Transformations of the Fields"; section 26-1, "The four-potential of a moving charge"; p. 26-2
The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1964)

volume III, "Feynman's Epilogue", p. 21-19
The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1964)

Source: QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (1985), p. 24

On the numerical value of α, the fine-structure constant, p. 129
QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (1985)

Source: No Ordinary Genius (1994), p. 239, from interview in "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out" (1981): video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEwUwWh5Xs4&t=48m10s

" Simulating Physics with Computers http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~christos/classics/Feynman.pdf", International Journal of Theoretical Physics, volume 21, 1982, p. 467-488, at p. 486 (final words)

from a 1987 class, as quoted in David L. Goodstein, "Richard P. Feynman, Teacher," Physics Today, volume 42, number 2 (February 1989) p. 70-75, at p. 73
Republished in the "Special Preface" to Six Easy Pieces (1995), p. xx.

Source: The Character of Physical Law (1965), chapter 1, “The Law of Gravitation,” p. 18: video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3mhkYbznBk&t=17m10s

Part 1: "From Rockaway to MIT", "String Beans", p. 25
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (1985)

"The Development of the Space-Time View of Quantum Electrodynamics," Nobel Lecture http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1965/feynman-lecture.html (11 December 1965)

rather than with the event
Source: QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (1985), p. 75-76

We haven’t any deep understanding of what we’re doing. If we tried to understand what we’re doing, we’d go nutty.
Source: No Ordinary Genius (1994), p. 236, from interview two weeks before his death in "The Quest for Tannu Tuva" (1989): video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn4_40hAAr0&t=51m49s

lecture II: "The Uncertainty of Values"
The Meaning of It All (1999)

The Value of Science (1955)

Source: The Character of Physical Law (1965), chapter 7, “Seeking New Laws,” p. 168

Probably a misattribution which instead originated with David Mermin; in "Could Feynman Have Said This?" http://scitation.aip.org/journals/doc/PHTOAD-ft/vol_57/iss_5/10_1.shtml?bypassSSO=1, by N. David Mermin, in Physics Today (May 2004), p. 10, he notes that in an earlier Physics Today (April 1989), p. 9, he had written what appears to be the earliest occurrence of the phrase:
If I were forced to sum up in one sentence what the Copenhagen interpretation says to me, it would be "Shut up and calculate!"
Disputed and/or attributed

note (c. 1948), quoted in Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman (1992) by James Gleick, p. 5 (repeated p. 283)

Source: QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (1985), p. 14

volume I; lecture 44, "The Laws of Thermodynamics"; section 44-1, "Heat engines; the first law"; p. 44-2
The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1964)

From Omni interview, "The Smartest Man in the World" (1979) p. 203
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out (1999)

Source: The Character of Physical Law (1965), chapter 7, “Seeking New Laws,” p. 162: video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2NnquxdWFk&t=29m20s

Part 4: "From Cornell to Caltech, With a Touch of Brazil", "Any Questions?", p. 177
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (1985)

Part 1: "From Rockaway to MIT", "Who Stole the Door?", p. 36-37
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (1985)

" Cargo Cult Science http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/51/2/CargoCult.htm", adapted from a 1974 Caltech commencement address; also published in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, p. 341

Source: The Character of Physical Law (1965), chapter 6, “Probability and Uncertainty — the Quantum Mechanical View of Nature,” p. 127-128