Political leaders or governments owe their position partly to force and partly to popular election. They cannot be regarded as representative of best elements, morally or intellectually, in their respective nations.

Except in mathematics, the shortest distance between point A and point B is seldom a straight line. I don't believe in mathematics.

The longing to behold this pre-established harmony [of phenomena and theoretical principles] is the source of the inexhaustible patience and perseverance with which Planck has devoted himself ... The state of mind which enables a man to do work of this kind is akin to that of the religious worshiper or the lover; the daily effort comes from no deliberate intention or program, but straight from the heart.

Life is sacred, that is to say, it is the supreme value, to which all other values are subordinate.

In any conflict between humanity and technology, humanity will win.

But the personality that finally emerges is largely formed by the environment in which a man happens to find himself during his development, by the structure of the society in which he grows up, by the tradition of that society, and by its appraisal of particular types of behavior.

The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think