Feynman is describing a paradox not as a contradiction within reality itself, but as a clash between what happens and what a person expects should happen. An outcome can appear paradoxical when established intuitions, habits of thought or everyday experience do not fit the underlying facts.

In physics, this distinction is especially important because many phenomena do not behave in ways that seem natural from ordinary experience. Feynman’s point is that discomfort with a result does not make the result inconsistent. Instead, it may show that the assumptions used to interpret it need to be reconsidered. The quotation therefore encourages a separation between observation and expectation: reality is not required to conform to intuition. More broadly, it can be applied to reasoning whenever apparently contradictory evidence may reflect limitations in a person’s mental model rather than a genuine contradiction in the world.