The great need to grasp principles had caused me to spend most of my time on fruitless persuits.
Albert EinsteinMore and more I come to value charity and love of one's fellow being above everything else...All our lauded technological progress-our very civilization-is like the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal.
Albert EinsteinA conviction akin to religious feeling of the rationality or intelligibility of the world lies behind all scientific work of a high order.
Albert EinsteinIt takes a different kind of thinking to solve a problem than the kind of thinking which produced the problem.
Albert EinsteinIt would of course be a great step forward if we succeeded in combining the gravitational field and the electromagnetic field into a single structure. Only so could the era in theoretical physics inaugurated by Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell be brought to a satisfactory close.
Albert EinsteinPhysics is an attempt conceptually to grasp reality as something that is considered to be independent of its being observed. In this sense one speaks of physical reality.
Albert EinsteinA man's ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.
Albert EinsteinSchools need not preach political doctrine to defend democracy. If they shape men capable of critical thought and trained in social attitudes, that is all that is necessary.
Albert EinsteinOnly six men in the world know about relativity. I am not one of them. When I ask them to explain, they confused me.
Albert EinsteinFew people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
Albert EinsteinPolitics is a pendulum whose swings between anarchy and tyranny are fueled by perennially rejuvenated illusions.
Albert EinsteinYou are right in speaking of the moral foundations of science, but you cannot turn around and speak of the scientific foundations of morality.
Albert EinsteinIf the workers of this world, men and women, decide not to manufacture and transport ammunition, it would end war for all time. We must do that. Dedicate our lives to drying up the source of war; ammunition factories.
Albert EinsteinStudy and, in general, the pursuit of truth and beauty is the sphere in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives." "Study and, in general, the pursuit of truth and beauty is the sphere in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.
Albert EinsteinEverything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.
Albert EinsteinI always have a high regard for the individual and have an insuperable distaste for violence and clubmanship. All these motives made me into a passionate pacifist and anti-militarist. I am against any nationalism, even in the guise of mere patriotism. Privileges based on position and property have always seemed to me unjust and pernicious, as did any exaggerated personality cult.
Albert EinsteinTo a student: Dear Miss - I have read about sixteen pages of your manuscript . . . I suffered exactly the same treatment at the hands of my teachers who disliked me for my independence and passed over me when they wanted assistants. . . . Keep your manuscript for your sons and daughters, in order that they may derive consolation from it and not give a damn for what their teachers tell them or think of them. . . . There is too much education altogether.
Albert Einstein"There's been a quantum leap technologically in our age, but unless there's another quantum leap in human relations, unless we learn to live in a new way towards one another, there will be a catastrophe."
Albert EinsteinPeople are like bicycles. They can keep their balance only as long as they keep moving.
Albert EinsteinI have never belonged wholeheartedly to a country, a state, nor to a circle of friends, nor even to my own family. When I was still a rather precocious young man, I already realized most vividly the futility of the hopes and aspirations that most men pursue throughout their lives. Well-being and happiness never appeared to me as an absolute aim. I am even inclined to compare such moral aims to the ambitions of a pig.
Albert EinsteinBut the personality that finally emerges is largely formed by the environment in which a man happens to find himself during his development, by the structure of the society in which he grows up, by the tradition of that society, and by its appraisal of particular types of behavior.
Albert EinsteinCompound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it ... he who doesn't ... pays it.
Albert EinsteinGenerations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth. (said of Mahatma Gandhi)
Albert EinsteinFalling in love is not at all the most stupid thing that people do - but gravitation cannot be held responsible for it.
Albert EinsteinThere are two ways of resisting war: the legal way and the revolutionary way. The legal way involves the offer of alternatinve service not as a privilege for a few but as a right for all. The revolutionary view involves an uncompromising resistance, with a view to breaking the power of militarism in time of peace or the resources of the state in time of war.
Albert Einstein