Albert Einstein Quotes

I am fascinated by Spinoza's pantheism, but admire even more his contributions to modern thought because he is the first philosopher to deal with the soul and the body as one, not two separate things

If I were not a Jew I would be a Quaker.

We come now to the question: what is a priori certain or necessary, respectively in geometry (doctrine of space) or its foundations? Formerly we thought everything; nowadays we think nothing. Already the distance-concept is logically arbitrary; there need be no things that correspond to it, even approximately.

The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses.

Nobody knows how the stand of our knowledge about the atom would be without him. Personally, [Niels] Bohr is one of the amiable colleagues I have met. He utters his opinions like one perpetually groping and never like one who believes himself to be in possession of the truth.

Somebody who only reads newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else.

The development of general ability for independent thinking and judgment should always be placed foremost, not the acquisition of special knowledge.

Fear or stupidity has always been the basis of most human actions.

You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.

I have only two rules which I regard as principles of conduct. The first is: Have no rules. The second is: Be independent of the opinion of others.

In the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity.

To the extent math refers to reality, we are not certain to the extent we are certain, math does not refer to reality.

I do not believe in free will. Schopenhauer's words: 'Man can do what he wants, but he cannot will what he wills,' accompany me in all situations throughout my life and reconcile me with the actions of others, even if they are rather painful to me. This awareness of the lack of free will keeps me from taking myself and my fellow men too seriously as acting and deciding individuals, and from losing my temper.

I have become an obstinate heretic in the eyes of my colleagues. Momentary success carries more power of conviction than reflections upon principles.

The Universe is stranger than we imagine!

This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future.

I made one great mistake in my life-when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made but there was some justification-the danger that the Germans would make them.

Toreador pants make your feet look big too

This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!

The important thing is to never stop questioning. Never lose a holy curiosity.

Without creative, independently thinking and judging personalities the upward development of society is as unthinkable as the development of the individual personality without the nourishing soil of the community.

I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.

Nothing truly valuable can be achieved except by the unselfish cooperation of many individuals.

It is quite possible that we can do greater things than Jesus, for what is written in the Bible about him is poetically embellished.

Marriage is but slavery made to appear civilized.

Knowledge exists in two forms - lifeless, stored in books, and alive, in the consciousness of men. The second form of existence is after all the essential one; the first, indispensable as it may be, occupies only an inferior position.

Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.

I know that the most joy in my life has come to me from my violin.

I have come to know the mutability of all human relationships and have learned to insulate myself against both heat and cold so that a temperature balance is fairly well assured.

A great thought begins by seeing something differently, with a shift of the mind's eye.

Dostoevsky gives me more than any scientist, more than Gauss.

Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.

I rarely think in words at all.

I do not much believe in education. Each person ought to be his or her own model, however frightful that may be.

In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not.

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.

When a man, after long years of searching, chances upon a thought which discloses something of the beauty of this mysterious universe, he should not therefore be personally celebrated. He is already sufficiently paid by his experience of seeking and finding.

Good acts are like good poems. One may easily get their drift, but they are not rationally understood.

Our schoolbooks glorify war and conceal its horrors. They indoctrinate children with hatred. I would teach peace rather than war, love rather than hate.

Life is sacred, that is to say, it is the supreme value, to which all other values are subordinate.

Matter is Energy ... Energy is Light ... We are all Light Beings

Out yonder there is this huge world, which exists independently of us human beings and which stands before us like a great, eternal riddle, at least partially accessible to our inspection and thinking

I was just more stubborn and more passionate than most about physics.

Man owes his strength in the struggle for existence to the fact that he is a social animal.

The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the power of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms - this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong to the rank of devoutly religious men.

Curiosity is its own reason.

A world government with powers adequate to guarantee security is not a remote ideal for the distant future. It is an urgent necessity if our civilization is to survive.

Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.