“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.”
Richard Feynman
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Primary source)
A delightful collection of autobiographical anecdotes revealing Feynman’s insatiable curiosity and playful irreverence, from safecracking at Los Alamos to bongo drumming in Greenwich Village, illustrating how brilliance and joy coexisted in one extraordinary life.
More about “Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!” →
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that. After you’ve not fooled yourself, it’s easy not to fool other scientists. You just have to be honest in a conventional way after that.”
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.”
— Richard Feynman Primary sourceMore quotes by Richard Feynman →
“When you’re good to others, you are best to yourself.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“He’s a fool that makes his doctor his heir.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy.”
— Marie Curie Disputed“Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today. It’s been that way all this year. It’s been that way so many times. All of this war is that way.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source