Quote #26

We can't define anything precisely. If we attempt to, we get into that paralysis of thought that comes to philosophers: one saying to the other: 'you don't know what you are talking about!'. The second one says: 'what do you mean by talking? What do you mean by you? What do you mean by know?'

More from Richard Feynman

  1. It is important to realize that in physics today, we have no knowledge what energy is. We do not have a picture that energy comes in little…
  2. From a long view of the history of mankind - seen from, say, ten thousand years from now, there can be little doubt that the most significa…
  3. A great deal more is known than has been proved.
  4. In fact, the science of thermodynamics began with an analysis, by the great engineer Sadi Carnot, of the problem of how to build the best a…
  5. I'd hate to die twice. It's so boring.
  6. If, in some cataclysm, all scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generation of creatures, …
  7. We scientists are clever - too clever - are you not satisfied? Is four square miles in one bomb not enough? Men are still thinking. Just te…
  8. Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars - mere globs of gas atoms. Nothing is 'mere'. I too can see the stars on a desert…

All Richard Feynman quotes