Quotes by Albert Einstein

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

“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.”

“Confusion of goals and perfection of means seems, in my opinion, to characterize our age.”

“Perfection of means and confusion of ends seem to characterize our age.”

“It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely.”

“Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.”

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

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

“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”

“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”

“The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.”

“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.”

“I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.”

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

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

“The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead.”

“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.”

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”

“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.”

“The environment is everything that isn't me.”

“Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish.”

“The only source of knowledge is experience.”

“It was the experience of mystery - even if mixed with fear - that engendered religion.”

“That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.”

“God always takes the simplest way.”

“If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.”

“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.”

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

“The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

“When the solution is simple, God is answering.”

“I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation and is but a reflection of human frailty.”

“God does not play dice.”

“I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil.”

“I shall never believe that God plays dice with the world.”

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

“Morality is of the highest importance - but for us, not for God.”

“God may be subtle, but he isn't plain mean.”

“An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.”

“He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead his eyes are closed.”

“Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.”

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”

“Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.”

“It gives me great pleasure indeed to see the stubbornness of an incorrigible nonconformist warmly acclaimed.”

“You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I've only ever had one.”

“A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin what else does a man need to be happy?”

“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.”

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.”

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.”

“To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.”

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

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

“Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.”

“Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.”

“Information is not knowledge.”

“Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.”

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

“The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.”

“There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there.”

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

“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”

“The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.”

“Without deep reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.”

“Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.”

“Love is a better teacher than duty.”

“You can't blame gravity for falling in love.”

“People love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results.”

“Force always attracts men of low morality.”

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”

“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.”

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”

“Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

“Peace cannot be kept by force it can only be achieved by understanding.”

“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.”

“Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.”

“Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity.”

“The attempt to combine wisdom and power has only rarely been successful and then only for a short while.”

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

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

“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.”

“I am a deeply religious nonbeliever - this is a somewhat new kind of religion.”

“True religion is real living living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness.”

“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.”

“Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.”

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

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

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

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

“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.”

“Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone.”

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

“The man of science is a poor philosopher.”

“All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.”

“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.”

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

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.”

“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.”

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

“Time is what prevents everything from happening at once.”

“Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.”

“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.”

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

“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.”

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

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

“It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.”

“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.”

“You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.”

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

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