Albert Einstein Quotes

• "A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend 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."
• "A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be."
• "A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; 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."
• "A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem."
• "A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new."
• "A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?"
• "A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?"
• "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."
• "All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree."
• "All such action would cease if those powerful elemental forces were to cease stirring within us."
• "All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual."
• "All these constructions and the laws connecting them can be arrived at by the principle of looking for the mathematically simplest concepts and the link between them."
• "All these primary impulses, not easily described in words, are the springs of man's actions."
• "An empty stomach is not a good political adviser."
• "Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools."
• "Any 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."
• "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."
• "Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves."
• "Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either."
• "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
• "As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue."
• "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."
• "Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish."
• "But their intervention makes our acts to serve ever less merely the immediate claims of our instincts."
• "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
• "Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations."
• "Confusion of goals and perfection of means seems, in my opinion, to characterize our age."
• "Considered logically this concept is not identical with the totality of sense impressions referred to; but it is an arbitrary creation of the human (or animal) mind."
• "Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."
• "Do you believe in immortality? No, and one life is enough for me."
• "Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school."
• "Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized."
• "Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler."
• "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
• "Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted."
• "Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts."
• "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."
• "Force always attracts men of low morality."
• "Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood."
• "God always takes the simplest way."
• "God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically."
• "God does not play dice."
• "God may be subtle, but he isn't plain mean."
• "Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."
• "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."
• "He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed."
• "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."
• "He who joyfully marches to music 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."
• "Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them!"
• "How I wish that somewhere there existed an island for those who are wise and of goodwill! In such a place even I would be an ardent patriot."
• "How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people."
• "Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it."
• "I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination."
• "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."
• "I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war."
• "I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind."
• "I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation and is but a reflection of human frailty."
• "I consider it important, indeed urgently necessary, for intellectual workers to get together, both to protect their own economic status and, also, generally speaking, to secure their influence in the political field."
• "I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it."
• "I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil."
• "I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two-thirds of the people of the earth will be killed."
• "I do not know with what weapons World War 3 will be fought, but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones."
• "I don't know, I don't care, and it doesn't make any difference!"
• "I have just got a new theory of eternity."
• "I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious."
• "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
• "I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity."
• "I never think of the future - it comes soon enough."
• "I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right."
• "I think that a particle must have a separate reality independent of the measurements. That is an electron has spin, location and so forth even when it is not being measured. I like to think that the moon is there even if I am not looking at it."
• "I used to go away for weeks in a state of confusion."
• "I want to know all Gods thoughts; all the rest are just details."
• "I want to know God's thoughts... the rest are details."
• "If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X + Y + Z, X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut."
• "If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith."
• "If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew."
• "If one were to take that goal out of out of its religious form and look merely at its purely human side, one might state it perhaps thus: free and responsible development of the individual, so that he may place his powers freely and gladly in the service of all mankind."
• "If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed."
• "If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts."
• "If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"
• "If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor."
• "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
• "In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same."
• "In order to be an immaculate member of a flock of sheep, one must above all be a sheep oneself."
• "Information is not knowledge."
• "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
• "Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them."
• "Isn't it strange that I who have written only unpopular books should be such a popular fellow?"
• "It gives me great pleasure indeed to see the stubbornness of an incorrigible nonconformist warmly acclaimed."
• "It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity."
• "It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education."
• "It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man."
• "It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."
• "It is not so very important for a person to learn facts. For that he does not really need a college. He can learn them from books. The value of an education is a liberal arts college is not learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks."
• "It is only to the individual that a soul is given."
• "It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely."
• "It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge."
• "It should be possible to explain the laws of physics to a barmaid."
• "It stands to the everlasting credit of science that by acting on the human mind it has overcome man's insecurity before himself and before nature."
• "It was the experience of mystery - even if mixed with fear - that engendered religion."
• "It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."
• "Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift."
• "Keep on sowing your seed, for you never know which will grow - perhaps it all will."
• "Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be."
• "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning."
• "Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized."
• "Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."
• "Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better."
• "Love is a better teacher than duty."
• "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler."
• "Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events."
• "Morality is of the highest importance - but for us, not for God."
• "Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone."
• "Most people say that is it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character."
• "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."
• "Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind."
• "Nationalism is an infantile sickness. It is the measles of the human race."
• "Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it."
• "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."
• "Never regard your study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of spirit for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which your later work belongs."
• "No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong."
• "No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it."
• "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
• "Not until the creation and maintenance of decent conditions of life for all people are recognized and accepted as a common obligation of all people and all countries - not until then shall we, with a certain degree of justification, be able to speak of humankind as civilized."
• "Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced."
• "Occurrences in this domain are beyond the reach of exact prediction because of the variety of factors in operation, not because of any lack of order in nature."
• "On the other hand, the concept owes its meaning and its justification exclusively to the totality of the sense impressions which we associate with it."
• "Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them."
• "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."
• "One strength of the communist system of the East is that it has some of the character of a religion and inspires the emotions of a religion."
• "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile."
• "Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person."
• "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
• "Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty."
• "Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding."
• "People love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results."
• "Perfection of means and confusion of ends seem to characterize our age."
• "Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity."
• "Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them."
• "Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas."
• "Quantum mechanics is very impressive. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory yields a lot, but it hardly brings us any closer to the secret of the Old One. In any case I am convinced that He doesn't play dice."
• "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."
• "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
• "Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."
• "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
• "Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds."
• "Solitude is painful when one is young, but delightful when one is more mature."
• "Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that man is here for the sake of other men."
• "Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."
• "Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."
• "That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God."
• "The attempt to combine wisdom and power has only rarely been successful and then only for a short while."
• "The devil has put a penalty on all things we enjoy in life. Either we suffer in health or we suffer in soul or we get fat."
• "The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits."
• "The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."
• "The environment is everything that isn't me."
• "The faster you go, the shorter you are."
• "The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead."
• "The foundation of morality should not be made dependent on myth nor tied to any authority lest doubt about the myth or about the legitimacy of the authority imperil the foundation of sound judgment and action."
• "The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge."
• "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."
• "The hardest thing to understand in the world is the income tax."
• "The high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule."
• "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."
• "The important thing is not to stop questioning."
• "The mere formulation of a problem is far more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skills. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science."
• "The minority, the ruling class at present, has the schools and press, usually the Church as well, under its thumb. This enables it to organize and sway the emotions of the masses, and make its tool of them."
• "The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind."
• "The more success the quantum theory has, the sillier it looks."
• "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science."
• "The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life."
• "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."
• "The only real valuable thing is intuition."
• "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once."
• "The only source of knowledge is experience."
• "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
• "The opinion prevailed among advanced minds that it was time that belief should be replaced increasingly by knowledge; belief that did not itself rest on knowledge was superstition, and as such had to be opposed."
• "The pioneers of a warless world are the young men (and women) who refuse military service."
• "The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them."
• "The process of scientific discovery is, in effect, a continual flight from wonder."
• "The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives."
• "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."
• "The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one."
• "The road to perdition has ever been accompanied by lip service to an ideal."
• "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
• "The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure."
• "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."
• "The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe."
• "The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive."
• "The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."
• "The wireless telegraph is not difficult to understand. The ordinary telegraph is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New York, and it meows in Los Angeles. The wireless is the same, only without the cat."
• "The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."
• "The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."
• "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."
• "There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there."
• "There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance."
• "They come into being not through demonstration but through revelation, through the medium of powerful personalities."
• "Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler."
• "To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty... this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness."
• "To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science."
• "To the Master's honor all must turn, each in its track, without a sound, forever tracing Newton's ground."
• "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."
• "True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist."
• "True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness."
• "Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value."
• "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."
• "Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."
• "We cannot despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings."
• "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."
• "We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive."
• "We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality."
• "Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
• "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."
• "When the solution is simple, God is answering."
• "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."
• "Where the world ceases to be the scene of our personal hopes and wishes, where we face it as free beings admiring, asking and observing, there we enter the realm of Art and Science."
• "Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters."
• "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
• "Why does this applied science, which saves work and makes life easier, bring us so little happiness? The simple answer runs: Because we have not yet learned to make sensible use of it."
• "Without deep reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people."
• "You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I've only ever had one."
• "You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created."
• "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war."
• "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."