Outside of their particular area of expertise scientists are just as dumb as the next person.
Richard P. FeynmanScience is a process for learning about nature in which competing ideas about how the world works are measured against observations.
Richard P. FeynmanOne of the ways of stopping science would be only to do experiments in the region where you know the law. But experimenters search most diligently, and with the greatest effort, in exactly those places where it seems most likely that we can prove our theories wrong. In other words, we are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.
Richard P. FeynmanIf science is to progress, what we need is the ability to experiment, honesty in reporting resultsโthe results must be reported without somebody saying what they would like the results to have beenโand finallyโan important thingโthe intelligence to interpret the results.
Richard P. FeynmanI don't like honors. I'm appreciated for the work that I did, and for people who appreciate it, and I notice that other physicists use my work. I don't need anything else. I don't think there's any sense to anything else.... I've already got the prize. The prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out, the kick in the discovery, the observation that other people use it. Those are the real things. The honors are unreal to me. I don't believe in honors... I can't stand it, it hurts me.
Richard P. Feynman