The idea of a personal God is quite alien to me and seems even naïve.

In every true searcher of Nature there is a kind of religious reverence, for he finds it impossible to imagine that he is the first to have thought out the exceedingly delicate threads that connect his perceptions

One is born into a herd of buffaloes and must be glad if one is not trampled under foot before one's time.

Scientific greatness is less a matter of intelligence than character; if the scientist refuses to compromise or accept incomplete answers and persists in grappling the most basic and difficult questions.

It is my fate to be considered an authority, since I spent my youth rebelling against it.

It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely.

There exists a passion for comprehension, just as there exists a passion for music. That passion is rather common in children, but gets lost in most people later on. Without this passion there would be neither mathematics nor natural science.