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| Albert Einstein: born 1879 died 1955 was a renowned physicist and philosopher |
Quotes by Albert Einstein
A person who is religiously enlightened appears to me to be one who has, to the best of his abilities, liberated himself from the fetters of his selfish desires and is preoccupied with thoughts, feelings and aspirations to which he clings because of their supra-personal value.
The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.
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.
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.
As long as there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable.
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.
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.
One of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness.
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all truth 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.
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.
After a certain high level of technical skill is achieved science and art tend to coalesce in aesthetics, plasticity, and form. The greatest scientists are artists as well.
It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.
The value of an education in a liberal arts college is not the learning of many facts, but the training of the mind to think of something that cannot be learned from textbooks.
The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.
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.
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 finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion. Herein lays the germ of all art and all true science.
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
The mystical trend of our time, which shows itself particularly in the rampant growth of the so-called Theosophy and Spiritualism, is for me no more than a symptom of weakness and confusion. Since our inner experiences consist of reproductions, and combinations of sensory impressions, the concept of a soul without a body seem to me to be empty and devoid of meaning.
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
God may be subtle, but he isn’t plain mean.
When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute; and it’s longer than any hour. That’s relativity.
The role of the artist is to deepen the mystery.
The majority of the stupid is invincible and guaranteed for all time. The terror of their tyranny, however, is alleviated by their lack of consistency.
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life.
Then there are the fanatical atheists whose intolerance is of the same kind as the intolerance of the religious fanatics and comes from the same source.
I believe that whatever we do or live for has its causality; it is good, however, that we cannot see through to it.
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.
Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.
The important thing is not to stop questioning; curiosity has its own reason for existing.
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
The distinction between past, present and future is only an illusion, however persistent.
Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.
Most people go on living their everyday life: half-frightened, half indifferent, they behold the ghostly tragic-comedy that is being performed on the international stage before the eyes and ears of the world.
Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity.
The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.
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.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
In a healthy nation there is a kind of dramatic balance between the will of the people and the government, which prevents its degeneration into tyranny.
The bitter and the sweet come from the outside, the hard from within, from one’s own efforts.
I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one. You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth.
The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.
Have the courage to take your own thoughts seriously, for they will shape you.
Laws alone cannot secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.
The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
I lived in solitude in the country and noticed how the monotony of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.
Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.
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.
To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.
The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.
Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.
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.
I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.
The only rational way of educating is to be an example. If one can't help it, a warning example.
Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.
Without "ethical culture”, there is no salvation for humanity.
Have the courage to take your own thoughts seriously, for they will shape you.
The only justification for our concepts and systems of concepts is that they serve to represent the complex of our experiences; beyond this they have not legitimacy.
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.
The emotional state that leads to achievements resembles that of a worshiper or the lover.
Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not bring us any closer to the secret of the ‘Old One’.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
It is my view that the vegetarian manner of living, by its purely physical effect on the human temperament, would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind.
Man usually avoids attributing cleverness to somebody else; unless it is an enemy.
Mathematics deals exclusively with the relations of concepts to each other without consideration of their relation to experience.
Men are living now just the way they were before, as if we didn't have a new all over-shadowing danger to deal with and it’s clear, they have learned nothing from the horrors they've experienced. The little intrigues, with which they complicated their lives before, take up again the greatest part of their thoughts. What a strange species we are.
The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.
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.
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.
As long as there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable.
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.
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.
One of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness.
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all truth 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.
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.
After a certain high level of technical skill is achieved science and art tend to coalesce in aesthetics, plasticity, and form. The greatest scientists are artists as well.
It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.
The value of an education in a liberal arts college is not the learning of many facts, but the training of the mind to think of something that cannot be learned from textbooks.
The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.
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.
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 finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion. Herein lays the germ of all art and all true science.
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
The mystical trend of our time, which shows itself particularly in the rampant growth of the so-called Theosophy and Spiritualism, is for me no more than a symptom of weakness and confusion. Since our inner experiences consist of reproductions, and combinations of sensory impressions, the concept of a soul without a body seem to me to be empty and devoid of meaning.
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
God may be subtle, but he isn’t plain mean.
When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute; and it’s longer than any hour. That’s relativity.
The role of the artist is to deepen the mystery.
The majority of the stupid is invincible and guaranteed for all time. The terror of their tyranny, however, is alleviated by their lack of consistency.
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life.
Then there are the fanatical atheists whose intolerance is of the same kind as the intolerance of the religious fanatics and comes from the same source.
I believe that whatever we do or live for has its causality; it is good, however, that we cannot see through to it.
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.
Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.
The important thing is not to stop questioning; curiosity has its own reason for existing.
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
The distinction between past, present and future is only an illusion, however persistent.
Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.
Most people go on living their everyday life: half-frightened, half indifferent, they behold the ghostly tragic-comedy that is being performed on the international stage before the eyes and ears of the world.
Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity.
The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.
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.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
In a healthy nation there is a kind of dramatic balance between the will of the people and the government, which prevents its degeneration into tyranny.
The bitter and the sweet come from the outside, the hard from within, from one’s own efforts.
I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one. You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth.
The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.
Have the courage to take your own thoughts seriously, for they will shape you.
Laws alone cannot secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.
The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
I lived in solitude in the country and noticed how the monotony of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.
Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.
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.
To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.
The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.
Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.
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.
I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.
The only rational way of educating is to be an example. If one can't help it, a warning example.
Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.
Without "ethical culture”, there is no salvation for humanity.
Have the courage to take your own thoughts seriously, for they will shape you.
The only justification for our concepts and systems of concepts is that they serve to represent the complex of our experiences; beyond this they have not legitimacy.
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.
The emotional state that leads to achievements resembles that of a worshiper or the lover.
Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not bring us any closer to the secret of the ‘Old One’.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
It is my view that the vegetarian manner of living, by its purely physical effect on the human temperament, would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind.
Man usually avoids attributing cleverness to somebody else; unless it is an enemy.
Mathematics deals exclusively with the relations of concepts to each other without consideration of their relation to experience.
Men are living now just the way they were before, as if we didn't have a new all over-shadowing danger to deal with and it’s clear, they have learned nothing from the horrors they've experienced. The little intrigues, with which they complicated their lives before, take up again the greatest part of their thoughts. What a strange species we are.
