Quotations from Albert Einstein



All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.

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

Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.

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.

Force always attracts men of low morality.

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
fully suffice.

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

Nationalism is an infantile disease, the measles of mankind.

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

Never lose a holy curiosity.

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

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

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

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

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

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.

If A is success in life, then A = x + y + z. Work is x, play is y and z is keeping your mouth shut.

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.

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

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.

All of science is nothing more than the refinement of everyday thinking.

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is.

From the viewpoint of a Jesuit priest I am, of course, and have always been an atheist.

A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.

Past thinking and methods did not prevent world wars. Future thinking must prevent wars.

A wonder of such nature I experienced as a child of 4 or 5 years, when my father showed me a compass.

I do not know how the Third World War will be fought, but I can tell you what they will use in the Fourth—rocks!

A new idea comes suddenly and in a rather intuitive way. But intuition is nothing but the outcome of earlier intellectual experience.

Intuition is nothing but the outcome of earlier intellectual experience.

I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs.

Without "ethical culture," there is no salvation for humanity.

I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.

The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it.

The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses

I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.

I do not believe in a personal God.

The idea of achieving security through national armament is, at the present state of military technique, a disastrous illusion.

The important thing is not to stop questioning; never lose a holy curiosity.

politics is more difficult than physics

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

What I am really interested in is knowing whether God could have created the world in a different way; in other words, whether the requirement of logical simplicity admits a margin of freedom.

What I am really interested in is knowing whether God could have created the world in a different way.

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.

If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects.

Never memorize what you can look up in books.

There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there. All great discoveries have involved such a leap.

Even on the most solemn occasions I got away without wearing socks and hid that lack of civilisation in high boots.

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.

If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music... I do know that I get most joy in life out of my violin.

If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician.

I get most joy in life out of my violin.

I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.

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. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

I'm not an atheist and I don't think I can call myself a pantheist.

I have only two rules which I regard as principles of conduct. The first is: Have no rules. The second is: Be independent of the opinion of others.

Science has therefore been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be
in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hopes of reward after death.

A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hopes of reward after death.

It is therefore easy to see why the churches have always fought science and persecuted its devotees.

My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized.

The led must not be coerced, they must be able to choose their leader.

I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the type of which we are conscious in ourselves. An individual who should survive his physical death is also beyond my comprehension, nor do I wish it otherwise; such notions are for the fears or absurd egoism of feeble souls.

I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures.

Our situation on this earth seems strange.

My passion for social justice has often brought me into conflict with people, as did my aversion to any obligation and dependence I do not regard as absolutely necessary.

I am an adherent of the ideal of democracy, although I well know the weaknesses of the democratic form of government.

A conflict arises when a religious community insists on the absolute truthfulness of all statements recorded in the Bible.

The main source of the present-day conflicts between the spheres of religion and of science lies in this concept of a personal God.

A people that were to honor falsehood, defamation, fraud, and murder would be unable, indeed, to subsist for very long.

The great moral teachers of humanity were, in a way, artistic geniuses in the art of living.

While religion prescribes brotherly love in the relations among the individuals and groups, the actual spectacle more resembles a battlefield than an orchestra.

I answer, the man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life.

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

I am absolutely convinced that no wealth in the world can help humanity forward, even in the hands of the most devoted worker in this cause.

Can anyone imagine Moses, Jesus, or Gandhi armed with the money-bags of Carnegie?

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

Politics is a pendulum whose swings between anarchy and tyranny are fueled by perpetually rejuvenated illusions.

I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it.

It seems hard to sneak a look at God's cards. But that He plays dice and uses "telepathic" methods... is something that I cannot believe for a single moment.

There has been an earth for a little more than a billion years. As for the question of the end of it I advise: Wait and see!

If the believers of the present-day religions would earnestly try to think and act in the spirit of the founders of these religions then no hostility on the basis of religion would exist among the followers of the different faiths.

I never commit to memory anything that can easily be looked up in a book.

The bigotry of the nonbeliever is for me nearly as funny as the bigotry of the believer.

To take those fools in clerical garb seriously is to show them too much honor.

The idea of a personal God is quite alien to me and seems even naive.

About God, I cannot accept any concept based on the authority of the Church.

I cannot prove to you that there is no personal God, but if I were to speak of him, I would be a liar.

I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil. My God created laws that take care of that. His universe is not ruled by wishful thinking, but by immutable laws.

I want to know how God created this world. I'm not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts, the rest are details.

It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropomorphic concept which I cannot take seriously.

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.

Common sense is nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down by the mind before you reach eighteen.

Everything should be as simple as it can be, but not simpler.

Falling in love is not at all the most stupid thing that people do — but gravitation cannot be held responsible for it.

A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.

A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem.

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.

A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?

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

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

All these primary impulses, not easily described in words, are the springs of man's actions.

An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.

Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.

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

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

As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.

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

Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.

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

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

Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.

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

God always takes the simplest way.

God does not play dice.

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

Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

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

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

Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love is a better teacher than duty.

Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.

Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events.

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

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

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

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.

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

No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.

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.

Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds.

Solitude is painful when one is young, but delightful when one is more mature.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

The environment is everything that isn't me.

The faster you go, the shorter you are.

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

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

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

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

The man of science is a poor philosopher.

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

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

The only real valuable thing is intuition.

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

The only source of knowledge is experience.

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

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

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

The road to perdition has ever been accompanied by lip service to an ideal.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

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

The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.

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

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

There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.

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

There could be no fairer destiny for any physical theory than that it should point the way to a more comprehensive theory in which it lives on as a limiting case.

There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance.

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

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

To the Master's honor all must turn, each in its track, without a sound, forever tracing Newton's ground.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels.

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

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

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.

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.

When the solution is simple, God is answering.

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.

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

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

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

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

You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created.

You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.

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