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Quotes by Albert Einstein

US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)

Only a life lived for others is a life worth while.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.

CP As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

The important thing is not to stop questioning.

My life is a simple thing that would interest no one. It is a known fact that I was born and that is all that is necessary.

My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

Each of us visits this Earth involuntarily, and without an invitation. For me, it is enough to wonder at the secrets.

I want to know Gods thoughts.... all the rest are just details

Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves.

Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.

Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it.

CP I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

CP As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge.

Theories should be as simple as possible, but not simpler.

I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details.

You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.

The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.

...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought.

God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically.

The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.

Nothing in the world makes people so afraid as the influence of independent-minded people.

CP Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish.

At any rate, I am convinced that He [God] does not play dice.

The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.

If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love.

CP Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... it takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.

Never underestimate your own ignorance.

Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.

When all think alike, no one thinks very much.

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most People are even incapable of forming such opinions.

The tragedy of life is what dies in the hearts and souls of people while they live.

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is.

My sense of God is my sense of wonder about the Universe.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.

Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever.

We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.

I have deep faith that the principle of the universe will be beautiful and simple.

Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.

Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.

Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.

The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. The trite subjects of human efforts, possessions, outward success, luxury have always seemed to me contemptible.

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices, but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence and fulfills the duty to express the results of his thought in clear form.

Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid. Human beings are incredibly slow, inaccurate, and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination.

We still do not know one-thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.

If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.

I never came upon any of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking.

Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.

Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!

He who cherishes the values of culture cannot fail to be a pacifist.

The aim (of education) must be the training of independently acting and thinking individuals who, however, can see in the service to the community their highest life achievement.

The conscientious objector is a revoultionary. On deciding to disobey the law he sacrifices his personal interests to the most important cause of working for the betterment of society.

To my mind, to kill in war is not a whit better than to commit ordinary murder.

It is characteristic of the military mentality that nonhuman factors (atom bombs, strategic bases, weapons of all sorts, the possession of raw materials, etc) are held essential, while the human being, his desires, and thoughts - in short, the psychological factors - are considered as unimportant and secondary...The individual is degraded...to "human materiel".

There are two ways of resisting war: the legal way and the revolutionary way. The legal way involves the offer of alternatinve service not as a privilege for a few but as a right for all. The revolutionary view involves an uncompromising resistance, with a view to breaking the power of militarism in time of peace or the resources of the state in time of war.

After a certain high level of technical skill is achieved, science and art tend to coalesce in esthetics, plasticity, and form. The greatest sceintists are always artists as well.

Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this counrty is closely related with this.

Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.

A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of justice, and the desire for personal independence - these are the features of Jewish tradition that make me thank my stars that I belong to it.

If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs, it would be Buddhism.

Isn't it strange that I who have written only unpopular books should be such a popular fellow?

When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint, something inside always reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry about.

The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. We are like a little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the ceilings with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written these books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. But the child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books - a mysterious order which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects.

Imagination is more important than knowledge...

Truth is what stands the test of experience.

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It's the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and science. Whoever does not know it can no longer wander, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed.

If my theory of relativity proves to be correct, Germany will claim me a German, and France will claim me a citizen of the world. However, if it proves wrong, France will say I’m a German, and Germany will say that I’m a jew.

God reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists.

To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.

Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.

It is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions in political affairs.

So long as there are men there will be wars.

One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community.

It is mathematics that offers the exact natural sciences a certain measure of security which, without mathematics, they could not attain.

Let us not forget that knowledge and skills alone cannot lead humanity to a happy and dignified life. ... I claim credit for nothing. Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insects as well as for the stars, Human beings, vegetables or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.

I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.

Wisdom is not a product of schooling, but of the life- long attempt to acquire it.

The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving.

It's not that I'm so smart , it's just that I stay with problems longer.

He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.

People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith.

I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.

No one but a theorist believes his theory; everyone puts faith in a laboratory result but the experimenter himself.

Do you remember how electrical currents and 'unseen waves' were laughed at? The knowledge about man is still in its infancy.

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.

Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.

No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.

We believe that an informed citizenry will act for life and not for death.

Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods.

Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.

If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.

I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious.

Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love? Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.

Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy.

The individual must not merely wait and criticize, he must defend the cause the best he can. The fate of the world will be such as the world deserves.

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity.

It is the theory that decides what we can observe.

The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible.

It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry.

The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all art and science.

When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking.

The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.

If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?

It is only to the individual that a soul is given.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.

Never regard study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the spirit for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which your later work belongs.

The point is to develop the childlike inclination for play and the childlike desire for recognition and to guide the child over to important fields for society. Such a school demands from the teacher that he be a kind of artist in his province.

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.

The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.

You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.

I feel that you are justified in looking into the future with true assurance, because you have a mode of living in which we find the joy of life and the joy of work harmoniously combined. Added to this is the spirit of ambition which pervades your very being, and seems to make the day's work like a happy child at play.

All of us who are concerned for peace and triumph of reason and justice must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert upon events in the political field.

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist

It is in fact nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curious of inquiry. It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty.

My religion consists of a humble admiration of the unlimitable superior who reveals Himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God

CP Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.

Every kind of peaceful cooperation among men is primarily based on mutual trust and only secondarily on institutions such as courts of justice and police.

I believe that whoever tries to think things through honestly will soon recognize how unworthy and even fatal is the traditional bias against Negroes. What can the man of good will do to combat this deeply rooted prejudice? He must have the courage to set an example by words and deed, and must watch lest his children become influenced by racial bias.

Concern for man himself and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavor. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.

Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized.

The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.

To my mind to kill in war is not a whit better than to commit ordinary murder.

The grand aim of all science is to cover the greatest number of empirical facts by logical deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms.