Richard P. Feynman Quotes About Progress

Quotes about: Progress

• We absolutely must leave room for doubt or there is no progress and there is no learning. There is no learning without having to pose a question. And a question requires doubt. People search for certainty. But there is no certainty. People are terrified — how can you live and not know? It is not odd at all. You only think you know, as a matter of fact. And most of your actions are based on incomplete knowledge and you really don’t know what it is all about, or what the purpose of the world is, or know a great deal of other things. It is possible to live and not know.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Thinking, Incomplete Knowledge, People

• It is our responsibility as scientists, knowing the great progress which comes from a satisfactory philosophy of ignorance, the great progress which is the fruit of freedom of thought, to proclaim the value of this freedom; to teach how doubt is not to be feared but welcomed and discussed; and to demand this freedom as our duty to all coming generations.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Freedom, Philosophy, Responsibility

  "The Value of Science". Public address at the National Academy of Sciences, published in "What Do You Care What Other People Think" (1988), Autumn 1955.

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

  Richard P. Feynman

  Science, Progress, Trying

  Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.130, Princeton University Press

• When a scientist doesn't know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty darn sure of what the result is going to be, he is still in some doubt. We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty - some most unsure, some nearly sure, but none absolutely certain.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Ignorance, Order, Ignorant

  "The Value of Science". Richard P. Feynman's public address at the National Academy of Sciences, Autumn 1955.

• We absolutely must leave room for doubt or there is no progress and no learning. There is no learning without having to pose a question. And a question requires doubt. People search for certainty. But there is no certainty.

  Richard P. Feynman

  People, Doubt, Progress

  "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out". Book by Richard P. Feynman, 1999.

• One of the ways of stopping science would be only to do experiments in the region where you know the law. But experimenters search most diligently, and with the greatest effort, in exactly those places where it seems most likely that we can prove our theories wrong. In other words, we are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Discovery, Law, Effort

• A scientist is never certain. ... We absolutely must leave room for doubt or there is no progress and there is no learning.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Doubt, Progress, Rooms

• It is the facts that matter, not the proofs. Physics can progress without the proofs, but we can't go on without the facts ... if the facts are right, then the proofs are a matter of playing around with the algebra correctly.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Science, Progress, Goes On

• Progress in science comes when experiments contradict theory.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Science, Progress, Theory

• To decide upon the answer is not scientific. In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar ajar only.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Science, Doors, Decide Upon

• If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will leave opportunities for alternatives.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Science, Opportunity, Progress

• 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

  Science, Opportunity, Thinking

• If science is to progress, what we need is the ability to experiment, honesty in reporting results—the results must be reported without somebody saying what they would like the results to have been—and finally—an important thing—the intelligence to interpret the results.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Honesty, Intelligence, Important

  Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.130, Princeton University Press

• We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress, we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Ignorance, Order, Doubt

  Richard P. Feynman (2011). “"What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character”, p.263, W. W. Norton & Company

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