I Consider That I Understand An Equation

I Do Not See How A Man Can Work On The Frontiers Of Physics And Write Poetry At The Same Time. They Are In Opposition.

Just By Studying Mathematics We Can Hope To Make A Guess At The Kind Of Mathematics That Will Come Into The Physics Of The Future... If Someone Can Hit On The Right Lines Along Which To Make This Development, It May Lead To A Future Advance In Which People Will First Discover The Equations And Then, After Examining Them, Gradually Learn How To Apply Them... My Own Belief Is That This Is A More Likely Line Of Progress Than Trying To Guess At Physical Pictures.

I Consider That I Understand An Equation When I Can Predict The Properties Of Its Solutions, Without Actually Solving It.

If You Are Receptive And Humble, Mathematics Will Lead You By The Hand. Again And Again, When I Have Been At A Loss How To Proceed, I Have Just Had To Wait Until I Have Felt The Mathematics Led Me By The Hand. It Has Led Me Along An Unexpected Path, A Path Where New Vistas Open Up, A Path Leading To New Territory, Where One Can Set Up A Base Of Operations, From Which One Can Survey The Surroundings And Plan Future Progress.

A Good Deal Of My Research In Physics Has Consisted In Not Setting Out To Solve Some Particular Problem, But Simply Examining Mathematical Equations Of A Kind That Physicists Use And Trying To Fit Them Together In An Interesting Way, Regardless Of Any Application That The Work May Have. It Is Simply A Search For Pretty Mathematics. It May Turn Out Later To Have An Application. Then One Has Good Luck. At Age 78.