No idea is conceived in our mind independent of our five senses [i.e., no idea is divinely inspired].

Thus I came...to a deep religiosity, which, however, reached an abrupt end at the age of 12. Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached a conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true....Suspicion against every kind of authority grew out of this experience...an attitude which has never left me.

It is little short of a miracle that modern methods of instruction have not already completely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry.... I believe that one could even deprive a healthy beast of prey of its voraciousness if one could force it with a whip to eat continuously whether it were hungry or not.

My intellectual development was retarded, as a result of which I began to wonder about space and time only when I had already grown up.

The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.

I cannot accept any concept of God based on the fear of life or the fear of death, or blind faith. I cannot prove to you that there is no personal God, but if I were to speak of him I would be a liar.

Lasting harmony with a woman (was) an undertaking in which I twice failed rather disgracefully.