In the temple of science are many mansions, and various indeed are they that dwell therein and the motives that have led them thither. Many take to science out of a joyful sense of superior intellectual power; science is their own special sport to which they look for vivid experience and the satisfaction of ambition; many others are to be found in the temple who have offered the products of their brains on this altar for purely utilitarian purposes.

Nationalism, on my opinion, is nothing more than an idealistic rationalization for militarism and aggression.

I am exclusively occupied with the problem of gravitation and hope with the help of a local mathematician friend [Marcel Grossman] to overcome all the difficulties. One thing is certain, however, that never in life have I been quite so tormented. A great respect for mathematics has been instilled within me, the subtler aspects of which, in my stupidity, I regarded until now as pure luxury.

Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.

Nationalism is the measels of mankind.

My scientific work is motivated by an irresistible longing to understand the secrets of nature not by other feelings.

What physics looks for: The simplest possible system of thought which will bind together the observed facts.