Don't listen to their words, fix your attention on their deeds.

If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.

It is impossible to get out of a problem by using the same kind of thinking that it took to get into it.

You can't solve problems with the same thinking that caused them.

When the Special Theory of Relativity began to germinate in me, I was visited by all sorts of nervous conflicts... I used to go away for weeks in a state of confusion.

The theoretical idea ... does not arise apart from and independent of experience; nor can it be derived from experience by a purely logical procedure. It is produced by a creative act. Once a theoretical idea has been acquired, one does well to hold fast to it until it leads to an untenable conclusion.

It is best, it seems to me, to separate one's inner striving from one's trade as far as possible. It is not good when one's daily break is tied to God's special blessing.