I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.
Interpretation
Embracing uncertainty can lead to a more intriguing life than clinging to potentially incorrect answers.
Richard P. Feynman emphasizes the value of curiosity and the excitement of exploration over the comfort of concrete answers. He suggests that living with questions can lead to richer experiences than settling for conclusions that may not be true, advocating for a mindset that welcomes uncertainty as a path to deeper understanding and discovery.
In practice
This quote can be shared in a philosophy class to spark discussion about the nature of knowledge.
The philosophical question before us is, when we make an observation of our track in the past, does the result of our observation become real in the same sense that the final state would be defined if an outside observer were to make the observation?
We seem gradually to be groping toward an understanding of the world of subatomic particles, but we really do not know how far we have yet to go in this task.
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.
It has not yet become obvious to me that there's no real problem. I cannot define the real problem; therefore, I suspect there's no real problem, but I'm not sure there's no real problem.
For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it. Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?
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.
Remember Old Nan's stories, Bran. Remember the way she told them, the sound of her voice. So long as you do that, part of her will always be alive in you.
Though thousand times a thousand in battle one may conquer, yet should one conquer just oneself, one is the greatest conqueror.
All those who actually live the mysteries of life haven't the time to write, and all those who have the time don't live them! D'you see?
Truth is always the enemy of power. And power the enemy of truth.
This moment - the one you're experiencing right now - is the culmination of all the moments you have experienced in the past. This moment is as it is because the entire universe is as it is.
There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome; to be got over.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.