Vorlesungen über Physik, Band I, Kap. 12.1 (Übersetzung: Heinz Köhler), Seite 165, Oldenbourg München Wien, 5. Aufl. 2007
Original englisch: "The trick is the idealizations. [...] This system is quite unlike the case of mathematics, in which everything can be defined, and then we do not know what we are talking about. In fact, the glory of mathematics is that we do not have to say what we are talking about. The glory is that the laws, the arguments, and the logic are independent of what 'it' is." - The Feynman Lectures on Physics: Quantum Mechanics. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., 1965.
Richard Feynman Berühmte Zitate
Zitiert in Tony Hey und Patrick Walters: Das Quantenuniversum, Spektrum, Heidelberg 1990, ISBN 3-8274-0315-4 Kapitel 2 "Heisenberg und die quantenmechanische Unbestimmtheit" "Seite 33.
Original engl.: "A philosopher once said: 'It is necessary for the very existence of science that the same conditions always produce the same results'. Well, they do not." - The Character of Physical Law. A series of lectures recorded by the BBC at Cornell University. BBC 1965. Neuauflage Modern Library 1994
Vorlesungen über Physik, Band I, Kap. 4.1 (Übersetzung: Heinz Köhler), Seite 46, Oldenbourg München Wien, 5. Aufl. 2007
Original engl.: "It is important to realize that in physics today, we have no knowledge of what energy is. We do not have a picture that energy comes in little blobs of a definite amount."
„Mir würde es gar nicht gefallen, zweimal zu sterben. Es ist so langweilig.“
Letzte Worte, 15. Februar 1988 - zu seiner Ehefrau, seiner Schwester und seiner Cousine, als er kurz aus einem durch Nierenversagen verursachten Koma erwachte.
Richard Feynman: Zitate auf Englisch
volume II; lecture 2, "Differential Calculus of Vector Fields"; section 2-1, "Understanding physics"; p. 2-1
The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1964)
Quelle: The Character of Physical Law (1965), chapter 1, “The Law of Gravitation,” p. 34
“Why are the theories of physics so similar in their structure?”
QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (1985)
same passage in transcript: video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2NnquxdWFk&t=16m46s
The Character of Physical Law (1965)
Variante: In general we look for a new law by the following process. First we guess it. Then we compute the consequences of the guess to see what would be implied if this law that we guessed is right. Then we compare the result of the computation to nature, with experiment or experience, compare it directly with observation, to see if it works. If it disagrees with experiment it is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It does not make any difference how beautiful your guess is. It does not make any difference how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is – if it disagrees with experiment it is wrong. That is all there is to it.
“I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.”
Variante: I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.
Quelle: The Character of Physical Law (1965), chapter 6, “Probability and Uncertainty — the Quantum Mechanical View of Nature,” p. 129
volume II; lecture 26, "Lorentz Transformations of the Fields"; section 26-1, "The four-potential of a moving charge"; p. 26-2
The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1964)
“I hope … that you will find someday that, after all, it isn’t as horrible as it looks.”
volume III, "Feynman's Epilogue", p. 21-19
The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1964)
Quelle: QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (1985), p. 24
On the numerical value of α, the fine-structure constant, p. 129
QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (1985)
Quelle: No Ordinary Genius (1994), p. 239, from interview in "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out" (1981): video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEwUwWh5Xs4&t=48m10s
" Simulating Physics with Computers http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~christos/classics/Feynman.pdf", International Journal of Theoretical Physics, volume 21, 1982, p. 467-488, at p. 486 (final words)
from a 1987 class, as quoted in David L. Goodstein, "Richard P. Feynman, Teacher," Physics Today, volume 42, number 2 (February 1989) p. 70-75, at p. 73
Republished in the "Special Preface" to Six Easy Pieces (1995), p. xx.
Quelle: The Character of Physical Law (1965), chapter 1, “The Law of Gravitation,” p. 18: video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3mhkYbznBk&t=17m10s
Part 1: "From Rockaway to MIT", "String Beans", p. 25
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (1985)
"The Development of the Space-Time View of Quantum Electrodynamics," Nobel Lecture http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1965/feynman-lecture.html (11 December 1965)
rather than with the event
Quelle: QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (1985), p. 75-76
We haven’t any deep understanding of what we’re doing. If we tried to understand what we’re doing, we’d go nutty.
Quelle: No Ordinary Genius (1994), p. 236, from interview two weeks before his death in "The Quest for Tannu Tuva" (1989): video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn4_40hAAr0&t=51m49s
“The fact that you are not sure means that it is possible that there is another way someday.”
lecture II: "The Uncertainty of Values"
The Meaning of It All (1999)
Quelle: The Character of Physical Law (1965), chapter 7, “Seeking New Laws,” p. 168
Probably a misattribution which instead originated with David Mermin; in "Could Feynman Have Said This?" http://scitation.aip.org/journals/doc/PHTOAD-ft/vol_57/iss_5/10_1.shtml?bypassSSO=1, by N. David Mermin, in Physics Today (May 2004), p. 10, he notes that in an earlier Physics Today (April 1989), p. 9, he had written what appears to be the earliest occurrence of the phrase:
If I were forced to sum up in one sentence what the Copenhagen interpretation says to me, it would be "Shut up and calculate!"
Disputed and/or attributed
“Principles
You can't say A is made of B
or vice versa.
All mass is interaction.”
note (c. 1948), quoted in Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman (1992) by James Gleick, p. 5 (repeated p. 283)
Quelle: QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (1985), p. 14
volume I; lecture 44, "The Laws of Thermodynamics"; section 44-1, "Heat engines; the first law"; p. 44-2
The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1964)
From Omni interview, "The Smartest Man in the World" (1979) p. 203
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out (1999)
“Nature's imagination far surpasses our own.”
Quelle: The Character of Physical Law (1965), chapter 7, “Seeking New Laws,” p. 162: video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2NnquxdWFk&t=29m20s
Part 4: "From Cornell to Caltech, With a Touch of Brazil", "Any Questions?", p. 177
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (1985)
Part 1: "From Rockaway to MIT", "Who Stole the Door?", p. 36-37
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (1985)
" Cargo Cult Science http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/51/2/CargoCult.htm", adapted from a 1974 Caltech commencement address; also published in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, p. 341
Quelle: The Character of Physical Law (1965), chapter 6, “Probability and Uncertainty — the Quantum Mechanical View of Nature,” p. 127-128