Richard P. Feynman Quotes About Uncertainty

• You see, one thing is, I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things... It doesn't frighten me.

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  Richard P. Feynman

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• What is not surrounded by uncertainty cannot be the truth.

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  Richard P. Feynman

  Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.290, Princeton University Press

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• This attitude of mind - this attitude of uncertainty - is vital to the scientist, and it is this attitude of mind which the student must first acquire. It becomes a habit of thought. Once acquired, we cannot retreat from it anymore.

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  Richard P. Feynman

  Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.286, Princeton University Press

  2762

• Science is a way to teach how something gets to be known, what is not known, to what extent things are known (for nothing is known absolutely), how to handle doubt and uncertainty, what the rules of evidence are, how to think about things so that judgments can be made, how to distinguish truth from fraud, and from show.

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  Richard P. Feynman

  Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.146, Princeton University Press

  3905

• I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers, and possible beliefs, and different degrees of uncertainty about different things, but I am not absolutely sure of anything. There are many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask "Why are we here?" I might think about it a little bit, and if I can't figure it out then I go on to something else. But I don't have to know an answer. I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in the mysterious universe without having any purpose - which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell.

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  Richard P. Feynman

  "Horizon (The Pleasure of Finding Things Out)". Documentary (November 23, 1981), later published in "No Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard Feynman" edited by Christopher Sykes (p. 239), 1994.

  3753

• When a scientist doesn't know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty darn sure of what the result is going to be, he is still in some doubt. We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty - some most unsure, some nearly sure, but none absolutely certain.

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  Richard P. Feynman

  "The Value of Science". Richard P. Feynman's public address at the National Academy of Sciences, Autumn 1955.

  357

• I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in the mysterious universe without any purpose - which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell. Possibly. It doesn't frighten me.

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  Richard P. Feynman

  "Horizon (The Pleasure of Finding Things Out)". Documentary (November 23, 1981), later published in "No Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard Feynman" edited by Christopher Sykes (p. 239), 1994.

  429

• In physics the truth is rarely perfectly clear, and that is certainly universally the case in human affairs. Hence, what is not surrounded by uncertainty cannot be the truth.

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  Richard P. Feynman

  Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.290, Princeton University Press

  900

• I do believe that there is a conflict between science and religion ... the spirit or attitude toward the facts is different in religion from what it is in science. The uncertainty that is necessary in order to appreciate nature is not easily correlated with the feeling of certainty in faith.

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  Richard P. Feynman

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• I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.

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  Richard P. Feynman

  Richard P. Feynman (2005). “The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman”, p.21, Hachette UK

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• It is in the admission of ignorance and the admission of uncertainty that there is a hope for the continuous motion of human beings in some direction that doesn't get confined, permanently blocked, as it has so many times before in various periods in the history of man.

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  Richard P. Feynman

  "The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist (lecture II: "The Uncertainty of Values")". Book by Richard P. Feynman, 1998.

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• Scientific views end in awe and mystery, lost at the edge in uncertainty, but they appear to be so deep and so impressive that the theory that it is all arranged as a stage for God to watch man's struggle for good and evil seems inadequate.

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  Richard P. Feynman

  Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.119, Princeton University Press

  1277

• I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong. If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will leave opportunities for alternatives. We will not become enthusiastic for the fact, the knowledge, the absolute truth of the day, but remain always uncertain … In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar.

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  Richard P. Feynman

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