Albert Einstein
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.
Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter can not understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.
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.
The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.
Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them !
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity.
Peace can not be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
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.
A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.
In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.
Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.
The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead.
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.
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
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 ?
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.
Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.
The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.
I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
The only real valuable thing is intuition.
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
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.
Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.
The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.
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.
I want to know God's thoughts ; the rest are details.
God is subtle but he is not malicious.
A human being is a part of a 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.
Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.
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.
I am convinced that He ( God ) does not play dice.
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 whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.
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.
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.
Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it.
Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds.
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.
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.
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.
Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression, in order that every man present his views without penalty, there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.
We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.
Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Peace can not be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
Gravitation can not be held responsible for people falling in love.
I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others, it is the only means.
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 my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.
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.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.
Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts
Only a life lived for others is a life worth living.
It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.