Science is what we do to keep us from lying to ourselves

A scientist is never certain. ... We absolutely must leave room for doubt or there is no progress and there is no learning.

That is the logical tight-rope on which we have to walk if we wish to interpret nature.

It's amazing how many people even today use a computer to do something you can do with a pencil and paper in less time.

Thus we can get the correct answer for the probability of partial reflection by imagining (falsely) that all reflection comes from only the front and back surfaces. In this intuitively easy analysis, the 'front surface' and 'back surface' arrows are mathematical constructions that give us the right answer, whereas .... a more accurate representation of what is really going on: partial reflection is the scattering of light by electrons inside the glass.

I learned a lot of different things from different schools. MIT is a very good place…. It has developed for itself a spirit, so that every member of the whole place thinks that it’s the most wonderful place in the world—it’s the center, somehow, of scientific and technological development in the United States, if not the world … and while you don’t get a good sense of proportion there, you do get an excellent sense of being with it and in it, and having motivation and desire to keep on

Know how to solve every problem that has been solved.