We should be on our guard not to overestimate science and scientific methods when it is a question of human problems, and we should not assume that experts are the only ones who have the right to express themselves on questions affecting the organization of society.
Albert EinsteinThere are times when one feels liberated from one’s limits and human imperfections. At such moments, we see ourselves there, in a little corner of our little planet, our eyes fixed in wonder on the cold and yet deep beauty of that which is eternal, that which is elusive. Life and death are fused together and there is no evolution, nor destination, there is only BEING.
Albert EinsteinThe wonder of nature does not become smaller because one cannot measure it by the standards of human moral and human aims.
Albert EinsteinPaper is to write things down that we need to remember. Our brains are used to think.
Albert EinsteinWhat humanity owes to personalities like Buddha, Moses, and Jesus ranks for me higher than all the achievements of the enquiring and constructive mind.
Albert EinsteinI believe the most important mission of the state is to protect the individual and make it possible for him to develop into a creative personality.
Albert EinsteinInsofar as we may at all claim that slavery has been abolished today, we owe its abolition to the practical consequences of science
Albert EinsteinIn art, and in the higher ranges of science, there is a feeling of harmony which underlies all endeavor. There is no true greatness in art or science without that sense of harmony.
Albert EinsteinA conflict arises when a religious community insists on the absolute truthfulness of all statements recorded in the Bible. This means an intervention on the part of religion into the sphere of science; this is where the struggle of the Church against doctrines of Galileo and Darwin belongs.
Albert EinsteinConscious man, to be sure, has at all times been keenly aware that life is an adventure, that life must, forever, be wrested from death.
Albert EinsteinScientific 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.
Albert EinsteinI was sitting in a chair in the patent office at Bern when all of a sudden a thought occurred to me: "If a person falls freely he will not feel his own weight." I was startled. This simple thought made a deep impression on me. It impelled me toward a theory of gravitation.
Albert EinsteinWhen the Special Theory of Relativity began to germinate in me, I was visited by all sorts of nervous conflicts... I used to go away for weeks in a state of confusion.
Albert Einstein... knowledge must continually be renewed by ceaseless effort, if it is not to be lost. It resembles a statue of marble which stands in the desert and is continually threatened with burial by the shifting sand. The hands of service must ever be at work, in order that the marble continue to lastingly shine in the sun. To these serving hands mine shall also belong.
Albert EinsteinI believe that whoever tries to think things through honestly will soon recognize how unworthy and even fatal is the traditional bias against Negroes. What can the man of good will do to combat this deeply rooted prejudice? He must have the courage to set an example by words and deed, and must watch lest his children become influenced by racial bias.
Albert EinsteinThe real problem is in the hearts and minds of men. It is not a problem of physics but of ethics. It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.
Albert EinsteinThe years of anxious searching in the dark, with their intense longing, their alternations of confidence and exhaustion and the final emergence into the light -- only those who have experienced it can understand it.
Albert EinsteinRaffiniert ist der Herr Gott, aber boshaft ist er nicht. God is subtle, but he is not malicious.
Albert EinsteinWhen 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.
Albert EinsteinIt is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions in political affairs.
Albert EinsteinStudent: Dr. Einstein, Aren't these the same questions as last year's [physics] final exam? Dr. Einstein: Yes; But this year the answers are different.
Albert EinsteinNationalism, on my opinion, is nothing more than an idealistic rationalization for militarism and aggression.
Albert EinsteinWhile it is true that science, to the extent of its grasp of causative connections, may reach important conclusions as to the compatibility and incompatibility of goals and evaluations, the independent and fundamental definitions regarding goals and values remain beyond science's reach.
Albert EinsteinNothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.
Albert EinsteinOne thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike -- and yet it is the most precious thing we have.
Albert EinsteinModern education is competitive, nationalistic and separative. It has trained the child to regard material values as of major importance, to believe that his nation is also of major importance and superior to other nations and peoples. The general level of world information is high but usually biased, influenced by national prejudices, serving to make us citizens of our nation but not of the world.
Albert Einstein