Quotes by Albert Einstein

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

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

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

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

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

“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 the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”

“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.”

“Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.”

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

“Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions that differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.”

“Force always attracts men of low morality.”

“God always takes the simplest way.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.”

“I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation and is but a reflection of human frailty.”

“I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil.”

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

“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 will be killed.”

“I have just got a new theory of eternity.”

“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

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

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

“I never think of the future—it comes soon enough.”

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

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

“I used to go away for weeks in a state of confusion.”

“I very rarely think in words at all. A thought comes, and I may try to express it in words afterward.”

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

“In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.”

“In order to be an immaculate member of a flock of sheep, one must above all be a sheep oneself.”

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

“Intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them. Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

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

“It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.”

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

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

“It should be possible to explain the laws of physics to a barmaid.”

“It stands to the everlasting credit of science that by acting on the human mind, it has overcome man's insecurity before himself and before nature.”

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

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

“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 it is the intellect that 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.”

“Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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 a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“The man of science is a poor philosopher.”

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.”

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

“The only real valuable thing is intuition.”

“The only source of knowledge is experience.”

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

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

“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.”

“To raise new questions and new possibilities and to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and marks real advancement 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.”

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

“We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.”

“We should take care not to make the intellect our goal; 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 the solution is simple, God is answering.”

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

“You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.”