Albert Einstein

Written in old age: I have never belonged wholeheartedly to a country, a state, nor to a circle of friends, nor even to my own family. When I was still a rather precocious young man, I already realized most vividly the futility of the hopes and aspirations that most men pursue throughout their lives. Well-being and happiness never appeared to me as an absolute aim. I am even inclined to compare such moral aims to the ambitions of a pig.

I am absolutely convinced that no amount of wealth in the world can help humanity move forward, even in the hands of the most devoted worker. The example of great and pure individuals is the only thing that can lead us to noble thoughts and deeds. Money only appeals to selfishness and irresistably invites abuse. Can anyone imagine Moses, Jesus or Ghandi armed with the money-bags of Carnegie?

How despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.

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

Only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.

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

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

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.

To a student: Dear Miss I have read about sixteen pages of your manuscript ... I suffered exactly the same treatment at the hands of my teachers who disliked me for my independence and passed over me when they wanted assistants.... Keep your manuscript for your sons and daughters, in order that they may derive consolation from it and not give a damn for what their teachers tell them or think of them.... There is too much education altogether.

It is the theory that decides what can be observed.

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.

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

If A equal success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.

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 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.

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

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.

God always takes the simplest way.

Of what significance is one's existence, one is basically unaware. What does a fish know about the water in which he swims all his life? The bitter and the sweet come from outside. The hard from within, from one's own efforts. For the most part I do what my own nature drives me to do. It is embarrassing to earn such respect and love for it.

The high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule.

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

Three rules of work: (1) Out of clutter, find simplicity; (2) From discord, find harmony; (3) In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

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

How do I work? I grope.

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 minuteand it's longer than any hour. That's relativity.

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

A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.

Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however, it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world.

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

Perfection of means and confusion of goals seemin my opinionto characterize our age.

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.

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.

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.

A man's moral worth is not measured by what his religious beliefs are but rather by what emotional impulses he has received from Nature during his lifetime.

The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unhappy but hardly fit for life.

Knowledge is limited.

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.

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

We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality. We should not make intellect our God. It has great power but very little compassion.

If men as individuals surrender to the call of their elementary instincts, avoiding pain and seeking satisfaction only for their own selves, the result for them all taken together must be a state of insecurity, of fear, and of promiscuous misery.

To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull facilities can comprehend only in the most primitive forms this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong to the ranks of the devoutly religious men.

It would seem that men always need some idiotic fiction in the name of which they can hate one another. Once it was religion. Now it is the State.

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.

It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.

God is subtle, but he is not malicious.

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.

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.

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.

Force always attracts men of low morality.

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

Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.

Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.

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

It is not enough that you should understand about applied science in order that your work may increase man's blessings. Concern for the man himself and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors; concern for the great unsolved problems of the organization of labor and the distribution of goods in order that the creations of our mind shall be a blessing and not a curse to mankind. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.

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

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.

I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.

The distinctions separating the social classes are false; in the last analysis they rest on force.

The crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career.

The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil; but because of the people who don't do anything about it.

Although words exist for the most part for the transmission of ideas, there are some which produce such violent disturbance in our feelings that the role they play in the transmission of ideas is lost in the background.

How I wish that somewhere there existed an island for those who are wise and of good will.

The pioneers of a warless world are the young men (and women) who refuse military service.

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

... Since I do not foresee that atomic energy is to be a great boon for a long time, I have to say that for the present it is a menace. Perhaps it is well that it should b e. It may intimidate the human race into bringing order into its international affairs, which without the pressure of fear, it would not do.

As long as there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable.

This heroism at command, this senseless violence, this accursed bombast of patriotism. How intensely I despise them!

If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.

The truth of a theory is in your mind, not in your eyes.

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

The only reason for time is so that everything doesnt happen at once.

Have the courage to take your own thoughts seriously, for they will shape you.

If I am right the Germans will say I was a German, and the French will say I was a Jew; If I am wrong the Germans will say I was a Jew and the French will say I was a German.

E=mc2. Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. The original statement is: If a body gives off the energy L in the form of radiation, its mass diminishes by L/c2. Ist die Tragheit eines Korpers von Seinem Energieghalt Abhangig? 1905

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.

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.

It stands to the everlasting credit of science that by acting on the human mind it has overcome mans insecurity before himself and before nature.

Try not to become a man of success, but rather to become a man of value. He is considered successful in our day who gets more out of life than he puts in. But a man of value will give more than he receives.

I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of all that exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings.

Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.

A theory is the more impressive the greater the simplicty of its premises is.

Out of clutter, find Simplicity. From discord, find Harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies Opportunity.

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

Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for every one, best both for the body and the mind.

It is high time that the idea of success be replaced by the idea of service.

The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self.

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

Small is the number of them that see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

The search for truth is more precious than its possession.

The man of science is a poor philosopher.

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

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

We must be prepared to make heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war. There is no task that is more important or closer to my heart.

The height of stupidity is most clearly demonstrated by the individual who ridicules something he knows nothing about.

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

Since the mathematicians have invaded the theory of relativity, I do not understand it myself anymore.

Relativity applies to physics, not ethics.

Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.

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

We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

You can't solve a problem with the same kind of thinking that created it.

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

You cannot prevent and prepare for war at the same time. OR You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.

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.

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.

I would not think that philosophy and reason themselves will be man's guide in the foreseeable future; however, they will remain the most beautiful sanctuary they have always been for the select few.

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

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.

Heroism on command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism how passionately I hate them!

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.

I have never imputed to Nature a purpose or a goal, or anything that could be understood as anthropomorphic. What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility. This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism.

The insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.

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

My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able toperceive with our frail and feeble mind. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible Universe, forms my idea of God.

The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depends on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life

What is this frog and mouse battle among the mathematicians? [i.e. Brouwer vs. Hilbert]

We come now to the question: what is a priori certain or necessary, respectively in geometry (doctrine of space) or its foundations? Formerly we thought everything; nowadays we think nothing. Already the distance-concept is logically arbitrary; there need be no things that correspond to it, even approximately.

These thoughts did not come in any verbal formulation. I rarely think in words at all. A thought comes, and I may try to express it in words afterward.

The human mind has first to construct forms, independently, before we can find them in things.

The bitter and the sweet come from the outside, the hard from within, from one's own efforts.

Nature hides her secrets because of her essential loftiness, but not by means of ruse.

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

I don't believe in mathematics.

How can it be that mathematics, being after all a product of human thought independent of experience, is so admirably adapted to the objects of reality?

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

During a lecture: This has been done elegantly by Minkowski; but chalk is cheaper than grey matter, and we will do it as it comes.

Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics, I assure you that mine are greater.

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.

About Newton: Nature to him was an open book, whose letters he could read without effort.

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.

The difference between what the most and the least learned people know is inexpressibly trivial in relation to that which is unknown.

A human being is a part of the 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. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.

A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.

Only a life lived for others is worth living.

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.

The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, and the solution comes to you and you don't know how or why.

The only real valuable thing is intuition.

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

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

I don't try to imagine a God; it suffices to stand in awe of the structure of the world, insofar as it allows our inadequate senses to appreciate it.

I do not believe in the immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern without any superhuman authority behind it.

Imagination is more important than knowledge, for knowledge is limited while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.

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

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 world needs heroes and it's better they be harmless men like me than villains like Hitler.

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

Raffiniert ist der Herr Gott, aber boshaft ist er icht. The Lord God is subtle, but malicious he is not.

Whatever there is of God and goodness in the universe, it must work itself out and express itself through us. We cannot stand aside and let God do it.

Before God we are equally wise and equally foolish.

Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.

A hundred times 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 difference between genius and stupidity is; genius has its limits.

I never think of the future it comes soon enough.

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?

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

Highly developed spirits often encounter resistance from mediocre minds.

The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.

... 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.

Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity.

One needn't be a crank to miss the scientific boat. The very paragon of genius, Albert Einstein, couldn't be persuaded to give quantum physics his unreserved endorsement. Here is Einstein's most frequently paraphrased statement of dissatisfaction with the theory: 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.

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.

The concern for man and his destiny must always be the chief interest of all technical effort. Never forget it among your diagrams and equations.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reasons 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.

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

I assert that the cosmic religious experience is the strongest and the noblest driving force behind scientific research.

One may say the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.

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.

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

Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.

We cannot dispair of humanity, since we are ourselves human beings.

I believe in the brotherhood of man and the uniqueness of the individual. But if you ask me to prove what I believe, I can't. You know them to be true but you could spend a whole lifetime without being able to prove them. The mind can proceed only so far upon what it knows and can prove. There comes a point where the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge, but can never prove how it got there. All great discoveries have involved such a leap.

Some recent work by E. Fermi and L. Szilard, which has been communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future. Certain aspects of the situation which has arisen seem to call for watchfulness and, if necessary, quick action on the part of the Administration. This new phenomena would also lead to the construction of bombs.... A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port, together with some of the surrounding territory. However, such bombs might very well prove to be too heavy for transportation by air.

... 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 might be killed, but enough men capable of thinking and enough books, would be left to start again, and civilization could be restored.

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.

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.

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.

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

Once you can accept the universe as being something expanding into an infinite nothing which is something, wearing stripes with plaid is easy.

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.

It is not the fruits of scientific research that elevate man and enrich his nature. but the urge to understand, the intellectual work, creative or receptive.

Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe a spirit vastly superior to that of man.... In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort, which is indeed quite different from the religiosity of someone more naive.

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

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

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.

Not until the creation and maintenance of decent conditions of life for all men are recognized and accepted as a common obligation of all men ... shall we ... be able to speak of mankind as civilized.

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.

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

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

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Generations to come will find it difficult to believe that a man such as Gandhi ever walked the face of this earth.

God is subtle but not malicious.

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.

Imagination is more important than knowledge, for knowledge is limited while imagination embraces the entire world.

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

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.

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 that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.

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

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

Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism.

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

The process of scientific discovery is, in effect, a continual flight from wonder.

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

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 co

When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, you think it's only a minute. But when you sit on a hot stove for a minute, you think it's two hours.

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

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

Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.

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.

You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.

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

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

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

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.

Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.

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.

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

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.

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.

Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.

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

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

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

The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.

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

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

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