The Quotable Feynman

Richard P. Feynman

Sep 2015 · Princeton University Press

About this ebook

A treasure-trove of illuminating and entertaining quotations from beloved physicist Richard P. Feynman

"Some people say, ‘How can you live without knowing?' I do not know what they mean. I always live without knowing. That is easy. How you get to know is what I want to know."—Richard P. Feynman

Nobel Prize–winning physicist Richard P. Feynman (1918–88) was that rarest of creatures—a towering scientific genius who could make himself understood by anyone and who became as famous for the wit and wisdom of his popular lectures and writings as for his fundamental contributions to science. The Quotable Feynman is a treasure-trove of this revered and beloved scientist's most profound, provocative, humorous, and memorable quotations on a wide range of subjects.

Carefully selected by Richard Feynman's daughter, Michelle Feynman, from his spoken and written legacy, including interviews, lectures, letters, articles, and books, the quotations are arranged under two dozen topics—from art, childhood, discovery, family, imagination, and humor to mathematics, politics, science, religion, and uncertainty. These brief passages—about 500 in all—vividly demonstrate Feynman's astonishing yet playful intelligence, and his almost constitutional inability to be anything other than unconventional, engaging, and inspiring. The result is a unique, illuminating, and enjoyable portrait of Feynman's life and thought that will be cherished by his fans at the same time that it provides an ideal introduction to Feynman for readers new to this intriguing and important thinker.

The book features a foreword in which physicist Brian Cox pays tribute to Feynman and describes how his words reveal his particular genius, a piece in which cellist Yo-Yo Ma shares his memories of Feynman and reflects on his enduring appeal, and a personal preface by Michelle Feynman. It also includes some previously unpublished quotations, a chronology of Richard Feynman's life, some twenty photos of Feynman, and a section of memorable quotations about Feynman from other notable figures.

Features:

• Approximately 500 quotations, some of them previously unpublished, arranged by topic
• A foreword by Brian Cox, reflections by Yo-Yo Ma, and a preface by Michelle Feynman
• A chronology of Feynman's life
• Some twenty photos of Feynman
• A section of quotations about Feynman from other notable figures

Some notable quotations of Richard P. Feynman:

• "The thing that doesn't fit is the most interesting."
• "Thinking is nothing but talking to yourself inside."
• "It is wonderful if you can find something you love to do in your youth which is big enough to sustain your interest through all your adult life. Because, whatever it is, if you do it well enough (and you will, if you truly love it), people will pay you to do what you want to do anyway."
• "I'd hate to die twice. It's so boring."

Ratings and reviews

What strikes one most clearly regarding the quotations in this book painstakingly compiled by this Nobel prize-winning physicist’s daughter, Michelle Feynman, from “his many published works, his personal papers that occupy 14 file drawers, and dozens of hours of recorded lectures,” is the accessibility of Richard P. Feynman’s thought, whether it be on a personal matter, such as youth, family and love, or the more intellectually challenging aspects of the quantum world and science and society. The cogency of Feynman’s profound understanding of the fundamental rules that govern and underpin the universe, as encapsulated in his own writings and lectures, is laid open to the reader here in a way that crystallizes many of his most meaningful sayings and expressions about the tangibility of life, how he lived it, and how he proposed those who sought his advice on the matter lived theirs. Full of sage advice, the many quotations in this collection are a perfect way to start learning more about the man himself, and the surrounding natural environment about which he so deeply cared. That he was able to elicit the trust of his many students, as well as of his multiple readers, is proof that, to his very core, Feynman was a man of integrity, who could see through to the heart and soul of his fellow man. The Quotable Feynman ends with quotations about this “magician of the highest calibre” (Kac), from a range of experts in the field of physics and elsewhere that reveal the high status that Feynman held among his peers. In addition to the approximately 500 quotations included in The Quotable Feynman, several of which have not previously appeared in print, a chronology is given of the highlights in Feynman’s life (1918−1988). Each chapter is headed by a black-and-white photograph of Feynman, from boyhood to his older years, just as he was, ever erect and dignified. Following on several pages of acknowledgements and sources, all of which are meticulously detailed, comes a nine-page index that is both illuminating and thorough. The Quotable Feynman should not only appeal to the scholar, or to fellow physicists, but to all those who take a lively interest in the surrounding universe, and in its underlying laws and precepts.

kool

good

About the author

Michelle Feynman, the daughter of Richard P. Feynman, is the editor of Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: The Letters of Richard P. Feynman (Basic) and The Art of Richard P. Feynman: Images by a Curious Character. She lives in Altadena, California.