Albert Einstein
- "Any
intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent.
It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the
opposite direction."
- "Imagination
is more important than knowledge."
- "Gravitation
is not responsible for people falling in love."
- "I want to
know God's thoughts; the rest are details."
- "The hardest
thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
- "Reality is
merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
- "The only
real valuable thing is intuition."
- "A person
starts to live when he can live outside himself."
- "I am
convinced that He (God) does not play dice."
- "God is
subtle but he is not malicious."
- "Weakness of attitude
becomes weakness of character."
- "I never
think of the future. It comes soon enough."
- "The eternal
mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
- "Sometimes
one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
- "Science
without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."
- "Anyone who
has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
- "Great
spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."
- "Everything
should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
- "Common sense
is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
- "Science is a
wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."
- "The secret
to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- "The only
thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
- "God does not
care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically."
- "The whole of
science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."
- "Technological
progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."
- "Peace cannot
be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
- "The most
incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."
- "We can't
solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created
them."
- "Education is
what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in
school."
- "The
important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for
existing."
- "Do not worry
about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still
greater."
- "Equations
are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an
equation is something for eternity."
- "If A is a
success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and
z is keeping your mouth shut."
- "Two things
are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the
universe."
- "As far as
the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as
they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
- "Whoever
undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is
shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
- "I know not
with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be
fought with sticks and stones."
- "In order to
form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a
sheep."
- "The fear of
death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of
accident for someone who's dead."
- "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."
- "Heroism on
command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by
the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"
- "No, this
trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of
chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first
love?"
- "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."
- "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."
- "The release
of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the
solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known,
I should have become a watchmaker."
- "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 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."
- "A man's
ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and
social ties; no religious basis is necessary
- "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."
- "Now he has
departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing.
People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between
past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."
- "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."
- "One had to
cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one
liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that,
after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any
scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year."
- "...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."
- "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."
- "A human
being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part limited in
time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as
something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his
consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to
our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our
task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of
compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its
beauty."