“While I am describing to you how Nature works, you won't understand why Nature works that way. But you see, nobody understands that.”

— Richard Feynman, book QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter

Source: QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (1985), p. 10

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Richard Feynman181

American theoretical physicist 1918–1988

Hans Hofmann (1880–1966) American artist

1970s and later

“Analysis of a system reveals how it works; it provides know-how, knowledge, not understanding; that is, explanations of why it works the way it does.”

Russell L. Ackoff (1919–2009) Scientist

This [understanding of why systems work] requires synthetic thinking... Analysis is the way scientists conduct research. Synthetic thinking is exemplified by design.
Ackoff & Greenberg (2008) Turning Learning Right Side Up. p. 61 as cited in: Stephen M Millett (2011) Managing the Future: A Guide to Forecasting and Strategic Planning. p. 52.
2000s

“The justification for naturalism is that it works: we have never understood anything about the universe by assuming the supernatural, while assuming naturalism as a working hypothesis has moved our understanding ever forward.”

Jerry Coyne (1949) American biologist

" Is atheism irrational? A philosopher says “yes” http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2014/10/15/is-atheism-irrational-a-philosopher-says-yes/" October 15, 2014

“If you understand the technical work of a business, you understand a business that does that technical work.”

Michael E. Gerber (1936) American business writer

Michael Gerber (1986), E, Myth, cited in: Manager's magazine, 1986. p. 57

“.. keep working quietly and have faith in what I tell you, never ask how someone else did it or is doing, try to understand nature, observe everything, try to learn to see and find your easiest way to represent it; one can make different choices from nature, follow what the heart tells you, for which you feel the most.... search for what contains effect, something what wants to tell clear things.”

Paul Gabriël (1828–1903) painter (1828-1903)

translation from the Dutch original: Fons Heijnsbroek
1880's + 1890's

“... nature has very few good ideas — it recycles them in subtle and interesting ways, over and over again — and it's our job to understand how that works.”

Nima Arkani-Hamed (1972) American-Canadian physicist

[A Conversation with Nima Arkani-Hamed: The Power of Principles, Physics Revealed (Part II), April 2, 2021, Ideas Roadshow, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzSDZ_EPiXk] (quote at 51:12 of 52:41)

“Hold your tongue; you won't understand anything. If there is no God, then I am God.”

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881) Russian author

Kirilov, Part III, Ch. VI, "A busy night"
The Possessed (1872)

“Even though you may not understand how God works, you know he does.”

Max Lucado (1955) American clergyman and writer

Source: When God Whispers Your Name

“If you’re looking for the full deal, the till-death deal, then look at me. No one’s ever going to love you, stick by you, understand how you work the way I do.
(Malcolm Kavanaugh)”

Nora Roberts (1950) American romance writer

Source: Happy Ever After

“You'll have to accept it. It's the way nature works. If you want to know how nature works, we looked at it, carefully. Looking at it, that's the way it looks. You don't like it? Go somewhere else, to another universe where the rules are simpler, philosophically more pleasing, more psychologically easy.”

Richard Feynman (1918–1988) American theoretical physicist

Sir Douglas Robb Lectures, University of Auckland (1979); lecture 1, "Photons: Corpuscles of Light" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLQ2atfqk2c&t=24m2s <br class="br">Context: There's a kind of saying that you don't understand its meaning, 'I don't believe it. It's too crazy. I'm not going to accept it.'… You'll have to accept it. It's the way nature works. If you want to know how nature works, we looked at it, carefully. Looking at it, that's the way it looks. You don't like it? Go somewhere else, to another universe where the rules are simpler, philosophically more pleasing, more psychologically easy. I can't help it, okay? If I'm going to tell you honestly what the world looks like to the human beings who have struggled as hard as they can to understand it, I can only tell you what it looks like.

“While I am describing to you how Nature works, you won't understand why Nature works that way. But you see, nobody understands that.”

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