“Observation is the ultimate and final judge of the truth of an idea.”
Richard Feynman
The meaning of it all (Primary source)
Three provocative 1963 lectures exploring science’s relationship to religion, politics, and society, wherein Feynman champions skepticism and intellectual honesty as essential virtues beyond the laboratory, published posthumously in 1998.
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“The third aspect of my subject is that of science as a method of finding things out. This method is based on the principle that observation is the judge of whether something is so or not. All other aspects and characteristics of science can be understood directly when we understand that observation is the ultimate and final judge of the truth of an idea.”
Richard Feynman
“The prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out.”
— Richard Feynman Primary source“For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.”
— Richard Feynman Primary source“I think that to keep trying new solutions is the way to do everything.”
— Richard Feynman Primary source“Knowledge is of no real value if all you can tell me is what happened yesterday. It is necessary to tell what will happen tomorrow.”
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“The belief in an external world independent of the perceiving subject is the basis of all natural science.”
— Albert Einstein Primary source“When the wine enters, out goes the truth.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“There is no sense in calculating the probability or the chance that something happens after it happens.”
— Richard Feynman Primary source“Every scientific law, every scientific principle, every statement of the results of an observation is some kind of a summary which leaves out details.”
— Richard Feynman Primary source