*

I was born not knowing

and have only had a little time to change that here and there

*

 learn what the rest of the world is like

the variety is worthwhile

I learned very early the difference between

knowing the name of something            

and knowing something

...

I'M SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW THAT I'M DUMB

...

Science is what we have learned about how to keep from fooling ourselves

...

Do not remain nameless to yourself

...

No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it

Nessun problema è troppo piccolo o troppo banale se possiamo davvero fare qualcosa al riguardo

...
You say you are a nameless man.     You are not to your wife and to your child.      You will not long remain so to your immediate colleagues if you can answer their simple questions when they come into your office.    You are not nameless to me.     Do not remain nameless to yourself – it is too sad a way to be.      Know your place in the world and evaluate yourself fairly, not in terms of your naïve ideals of your own youth, nor in terms of what you erroneously imagine your teacher’s ideals are.
Best of luck and happiness.    Sincerely, Richard P. Feynman
tratto da  lettera di risposta  allo studente   koichi mano - 1966
fb/nobelprize - lettersofnote.com

.

.

The whole problem of discovering what was the matter

and figuring out what you have to do to fix it

that was interesting to me, like a puzzle

.

Se vogliamo risolvere un problema che non abbiamo ancora risolto

dobbiamo lasciare socchiusa la porta dell’ignoto
.

 In piedi davanti al mare meravigliato della propria meraviglia

io un universo di atomi

un atomo nell'universo

I ... a universe of atoms, an atom in the universe

.

The highest forms of understanding we can achieve

are laughter and human compassion

.

Il problema non è che le persone siano ignoranti

Il problema è che le persone sono istruite quel tanto che basta

per credere a ciò che è stato loro insegnato

e non abbastanza istruite per mettere in dubbio qualsiasi cosa

da ciò che è stato insegnato loro
The problem is not people being uneducated. The problem is that people are educated

just enough to believe what they have been taught, and not educated enough to question

anything from what they have been taught

.
I don't know what's the matter with people

they don't learn by understanding, they learn by some other way

by rote or something

Their knowledge is so fragile  !

.

We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible

because only in that way can we find progress

...

chi pretende di capire la teoria quantistica 

non ha capito la meccanica quantistica

If you think you understand quantum mechanics

you don't understand quantum mechanics

...

Quantum mechanics describes nature as absurd

from the point of view of common sense

And yet it fully agrees with experiment

So I hope you can accept nature as She is - absurd

...

Our imagination is stretched to the utmost, not as in fiction

to imagine things which are not really there

but just to comprehend those things which are there
in the character of physical law   -  1965 - fm/rf

...

never mind - nothing is going to change your mind

I did that once when I was a student at MIT. I got sick and tired of having to decide what kind of dessert I was going to have at the restaurant, so I decided it would always be chocolate ice cream, and never worried about it again - I had the solution to that problem.
surely you're joking, mr. feynman !

.

.

Fall in love with some activity  

and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter  .   Explore the world  .    Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough. Work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best .     Don't think about what you want to be, but what you want to do .     Keep up some kind of a minimum with other things so that society doesn't stop you from doing anything at all .

.

.

Penso poter tranquillamente  dire che nessuno capisce la meccanica quantistica

There was a time when the newspapers said that only twelve men understood the theory of relativity .    I do not believe there ever was such a time .    There might have been a time when only one man did, because he was the only guy who caught on, before he wrote his paper .    But after people read the paper a lot of people understood the theory of relativity in some way or other, certainly more than twelve .   On the other hand, I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.
the character of physical law - 1965 - BBC_penguin

.

on science
The world looks so different after learning science 
For example, trees are made of air, primarily. When they are burned, they go back to air, and in the flaming heat is released the flaming heat of the sun which was bound in to convert the air into tree. And in the ash is the small remnant of the part which did not come from air, that came from the solid Earth, instead.
These are beautiful things, and the content of science is wonderfully full of them. They are inspiring and they can be used to inspire others.
ocean.washington.edu

There is no authority who decides what is a good idea

We have lost the need to go to an authority to find out whether an idea is true or not.    We can read an authority and let him suggest something; we can try it out and find out if it is true or not.  If it is not true, so much the worse - so the 'authorities' lose some of their 'authority' .
the meaning of it all - the uncertainty of science - 1998

nytimes.com
.

Babbo Natale
Quando da piccoli scoprii che Babbo natale non esisteva, non ci rimasi male. Ero al contrario sollevato di sapere che un fenomeno molto più semplice spiegava come mai così tanti bambini in tutto il mondo ricevevano regali tutti la stessa notte.
...
Tempo
Se lasciamo cadere un uovo sul marciapiede si spiaccica in tutte le direzioni.      Al contrario, se vediamo un uovo spiaccicato sul marciapiede, non ci aspettiamo che da un momento all’altro si raccolga insieme per formare un uovo intero che ci salta in mano. Sembra quindi ovvio che le leggi della fisica apparirebbero diverse invertendo la direzione del tempo .
...
Nobel
Non sto dicendo che la mia fisica non sia degna del premio Nobel ma che io, da un punto di vista umano, non mi sento un Premio Nobel o uno Scienziato Importante. Non lo sono, tutto qua. Ero solo un ragazzino che si gingillava. Ero in pigiama sul pavimento con carta e matita, e ho scarabocchiato qualcosa, ok ?
...    ANCH'IO HO GIOITO ALLA NOTIZIA DEL NOBEL PENSANDO CHE FINALMENTE ERA STATA RICONOSCIUTA LA MIA ABILITÀ COI BONGHI .
...
TEORIA
BISOGNA INNAMORARSI DI UNA TEORIA E, COME PER UNA DONNA, QUESTO È POSSIBILE SOLO SE NON LA SI CAPISCE COMPLETAMENTE .
...

I was terrible in English

I couldn't stand the subject.   It seemed to me ridiculous to worry about whether you spelled something wrong or not, because English spelling is just a human convention--it has nothing to do with anything real, anything from nature.    Any word can be spelled just as well a different way .
...

fb/rf - wikiquote

A poet once said

' The whole universe is in a glass of wine . '   We will probably never know in what sense he meant it, for poets do not write to be understood .    But it is true that if we look at a glass of wine closely enough we see the entire universe .    There are the things of physics: the twisting liquid which evaporates depending on the wind and weather, the reflection in the glass; and our imagination adds atoms .    The glass is a distillation of the earth's rocks, and in its composition we see the secrets of the universe's age, and the evolution of stars .    What strange array of chemicals are in the wine ?   How did they come to be ?   There are the ferments, the enzymes, the substrates, and the products .   There in wine is found the great generalization; all life is fermentation. Nobody can discover the chemistry of wine without discovering, as did Louis Pasteur, the cause of much disease .   How vivid is the claret, pressing its existence into the consciousness that watches it! If our small minds, for some convenience, divide this glass of wine, this universe, into parts - physics, biology, geology, astronomy, psychology, and so on - remember that nature does not know it !   So let us put it all back together, not forgetting ultimately what it is for .   Let it give us one more final pleasure;   drink it and forget it all !
...

I poeti dicono

che la scienza rovina la bellezza delle stelle, riducendole solo ad ammassi di atomi di gas. Solo? Anch’ io mi commuovo a vedere le stelle di notte nel deserto, ma ne vedo di meno o di più ?     La vastità dei cieli sfida la mia immaginazione; attaccato a questa piccola giostra il mio occhio riesce a cogliere luce vecchia di un milione di anni .    Vedo un grande schema, di cui sono parte, e forse la mia sostanza è stata eruttata da qualche stella dimenticata, come una, ora, sta esplodendo lassù .    Oppure vederle con il grande occhio di Palomar correre via l'una dall'altra, allontanandosi da uno stesso punto in cui erano forse riunite tutte insieme .   Qual'è lo schema, quale il suo significato, il perchè ?   Saperne qualcosa non distrugge il mistero, perchè la realtà è tanto più meravigliosa di quanto potesse immaginare nessun artista del passato !   Che uomini sono mai i poeti, che riescono a parlare di giove pensandolo simile ad un uomo, ma se è un’immensa sfera di metano e ammoniaca ammutoliscono ?
sei pezzi facili  - six easy pieces 2000

...

.

Anytime you try to teach the subjects without teachers who love the subject

it is doomed to failure and is a foolish thing to do
fb/nobelprize

What do I advise ?   Forget it all .   Don't be afraid
Do what you get the most pleasure from
Is it to build a cloud chamber ?    Then go on doing things like that
Develop your talents wherever they may lead   
Damn the torpedoes - full speed ahead ! ...
If you have any talent
or any occupation that delights you,  do it,  and do it to the hilt ...
richard p. feynman to frederich hipp - april 5, 1961  -   www.basicfeynman.com

Quello che non riesco a creare, non lo saprò mai capire
What I cannot create, I do not understand
scritto da rf sulla sua lavagna nel 1988 - da L'universo in un guscio di noce di Stephen Hawking