I have to disregard everybody else, and then I can do my own work.
It’s because somebody knows something about it that we can’t talk about physics. It’s the things that nobody knows anything about we can discuss.
It is simple, therefore it is beautiful.
So this piece of dirt waits four and a half billion years and evolves and changes, and now a strange creature stands here with instruments and talks to the strange creatures in the audience. What a wonderful world!
Experiment is the sole judge of the validity of any idea.
Whenever you see a sweeping statement that a tremendous amount can come from a very small number of assumptions, you always find that it is false. There are usually a large number of implied assumptions that are far from obvious if you think about them sufficiently carefully.
The test of all knowledge is experiment. Experiment is the sole judge of scientific truth.
Light is something like raindrops; each little lump of light is called a photon, and if the light is all one color, all the ‘raindrops’ are the same.
If you know that you are not sure, you have a chance to improve the situation. I want to demand this freedom for future generations.
Energy is a very subtle concept. It is very, very difficult to get right.
It is the fact that the electrons cannot all get on top of each other that makes tables and everything else solid.
When a photon comes down, it interacts with electrons throughout the glass, not just on the surface. The photon and electrons do some kind of dance, the net result of which is the same as if the photon hit only on the surface.
We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress, we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt.
I always do that, get into something and see how far I can go.
Turbulence is the most important unsolved problem of classical physics.
Doubt is clearly a value in science. It is important to doubt and that the doubt is not a fearful thing, but a thing of great value.
I have to keep going to find out ultimately what is the matter with it in the end.
Just as a poet often has license from the rules of grammar and pronunciation, we should like to ask for ‘physicists’ license from the rules of mathematics in order to express what we wish to say in as simple a manner as possible.
It is our responsibility to leave the people of the future a free hand.
Since then I never pay attention to anything by “experts”. I calculate everything myself.