If I had my life to live over again, I would elect to be a trader of goods rather than a student of science. I think barter is a noble thing.

The contemplation of this world beckoned as a liberation (...)The road to this paradise was not as comfortable and alluring as the road to the religious paradise; but it has shown itself reliable, and I have never regretted having chosen it.

The sole function of education...[is] to open the way to thinking and knowing, and the school, as the outstanding organ for the people's education, must serve that end exclusively.

But in physics I soon learned to scent out the paths that led to the depths, and to disregard everything else, all the many things that clutter up the mind, and divert it from the essential. The hitch in this was, of course, the fact that one had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examination, whether one liked it or not.

That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don't notice that the time passes.

If someone feels that he has never made a mistake in his life, it only means that he has never tried anything new in his life.

It is important to foster individuality, for only the individual can produce the new ideas.