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.

Intuitive powers played a central role in my scientific work, not wild speculation, yet a valued resource when no other approach was available.

The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed to the empty. The trite objects of human efforts — possessions, outward success, luxury—have always seemed to me contemptible.

The trite objects of human efforts-possessions, superficial success, luxury-have always seemed contemptible to me.

Life is a preparation for the future; and the best preparation for the future is to live as if there were none.

In the matter of physics, the first lessons should contain nothing but what is experimental and interesting to see. A pretty experiment is in itself often more valuable than twenty formulae extracted from our minds.

It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.