Albert Einstein Quotes

Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.

Albert Einstein
(14 March 1879 - 18 April 1955)

Information is not knowledge. God always takes the simplest way. That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God. Never lose a holy curiosity. I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation and is but a reflection of human frailty. There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle. It gives me great pleasure indeed to see the stubbornness of an incorrigible nonconformist warmly acclaimed. The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind. Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters. The process of scientific discovery is, in effect, a continual flight from wonder. Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.

Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler. God does not play dice. It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely. The man of science is a poor philosopher. As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue. Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind. Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events. I am a deeply religious nonbeliever - this is a somewhat new kind of religion. 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 pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives. The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe. It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions. It is only to the individual that a soul is given.

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. I shall never believe that God plays dice with the world. Solitude is painful when one is young, but delightful when one is more mature. All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual. 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. It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer. Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. 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. You can't blame gravity for falling in 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. The high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule. A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.

Isn't it strange that I who have written only unpopular books should be such a popular fellow? Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile. 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. Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it. Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value. I have just got a new theory of eternity. The only real valuable thing is intuition. I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil. 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. The environment is everything that isn't me. Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it. Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.

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, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science. People love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results. The hardest thing to understand in the world is the income tax. Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character. 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. True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness. Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted. Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves. 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. Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.

I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind. Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools. Imagination is more important than knowledge. You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war. It should be possible to explain the laws of physics to a barmaid. Morality is of the highest importance - but for us, not for God. The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking. To the Master's honor all must turn, each in its track, without a sound, forever tracing Newton's ground. Force always attracts men of low morality. A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy? 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. Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding. One may say the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.

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. Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas. Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character. We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us. Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift. It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist. Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school. Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. 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. I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion. Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish. Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be. The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive. I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. An empty stomach is not a good political adviser. We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. The attempt to combine wisdom and power has only rarely been successful and then only for a short while.

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. There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there. I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right. Love is a better teacher than duty. The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination. The only source of knowledge is experience. We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality. If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor. A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy? 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. When the solution is simple, God is answering. The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.

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In order to be an immaculate member of a flock of sheep, one must above all be a sheep oneself. Time is what prevents everything from happening at once. Perfection of means and confusion of ends seem to characterize our age. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive. 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. Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be. The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible. You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else. Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find 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. God may be subtle, but he isn't plain mean. I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.

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He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed. Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them. 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. The road to perdition has ever been accompanied by lip service to an ideal. Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal. Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen. The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either. The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education. 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. Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods. The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead.

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I want to know all Gods thoughts; all the rest are just details. If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed. Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone. Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater. All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. It was the experience of mystery - even if mixed with fear - that engendered religion. Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler. Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind. Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity. 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. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them! All these primary impulses, not easily described in words, are the springs of man's actions.

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The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge. Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds. 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. A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem. Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts. The faster you go, the shorter you are. The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. Without deep reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people. Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing. Confusion of goals and perfection of means seems, in my opinion, to characterize our age. I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.

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If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts. 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. Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love. You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I've only ever had one. 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. Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them. No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder. If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it? You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created. The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once. Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.

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No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity. 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. 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. I used to go away for weeks in a state of confusion. Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.

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