The basic laws of the universe are simple, but because our senses are limited, we can’t grasp them. There is a pattern in creation.

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

I never think of the future. It comes soon enough. When visiting the U.S. from Germany for a winter academic stay.

We cannot resolve the problems of the world by unsing the same techniques that have created them.

Dostoevsky gives me more than any scientist, more than Gauss.

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.

Concepts that have proven useful in ordering things easily achieve such authority over us that we forget their earthly origins and accept them as unalterable givens.