"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 the universe."
"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. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be
restrained by fear of punishment and
hope of
reward after death."
"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."
"Not
everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be
counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at
Princeton
