Albert Einstein Quotes

To me the worst thing seems to be a school principally to work with methods of fear, force and artificial authority. Such treatment destroys the sound sentiments, the sincerity and the self-confidence of pupils and produces a subservient subject.

The best design is the simplest one that works.

The feeling for what ought and ought not to be grows and dies like a tree, and no fertilizer of any kind will do much good. What the individual can do is give a fine example, and have the courage to firmly uphold ethical convictions in a society of cynics. I have for a long time tried to conduct myself this way, with varying success.

The release of atomic power has changed everything except our way of thinking ... the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker. (1945)

Those instrumental goods which should serve to maintain the life and health of all human beings should be produced by the least possible labour of all.

Humankind's desire for peace can be realized only by the creation of a world government.

It would be a sad situation if the bag was better than the meat wrapped in it.

The rest of my life (as a 39 year old) I want to reflect on what life is.

I never thought that others would take my theories so much more seriously than I did.

The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.

Curiosity is a delicate little plant that, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom.

You cannot prevent and prepare for war at the same time.

The leader is one who, out of the clutter, brings simplicity... out of discord, harmony... and out of difficulty, opportunity.

As long as I have any choice in the matter, I shall live only in a country where civil liberty, tolerance and equality of all citizens before the law prevail.

Past is dead Future is uncertain; Present is all you have, So eat, drink and live merry.

The really valuable method of thought to arrive at a logically coherent system is intuition.

The belief in an external world independent of the perceiving subject is the basis of all natural science. Since, however, sense perception only gives information of this external world or of "physical reality" indirectly, we can only grasp the latter by speculative means. It follows from this that our notions of physical reality can never be final. We must always be ready to change these notions - that is to say, the axiomatic basis of physics - in order to do justice to perceived facts in the most perfect way.

All means prove but blunt instruments, if they have not behind them a living spirit.

Everything what's inspiring has been created by one who could work in freedom

I have remained a simple fellow who asks nothing of the world; only my youth is gone - the enchanting youth that forever walks on air.

About God, I cannot accept any concept based on the authority of the Church... As long as I can remember. I have resented mass indoctrination. I cannot prove to you there is no personal God, but if I were to speak of him, I would be a liar. I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil. His universe is not ruled by wishful thinking, but by immutable laws

I have tried 99 times and have failed, but on the 100th time came success.

Don't dream of being a good person, be a human being is valuable and gives value to life.

The only sure way to avoid making mistakes is to have no new ideas.

Man tries to make for himself in the fashion that suits him best a simplified and intelligible picture of the world; he then tries to some extent to substitute this cosmos of his for the world of experience, and thus to overcome it. This is what the painter, the poet, the speculative philosopher, and the natural scientists do, each in his own fashion. Each makes this cosmos and its construction the pivot of his emotional life, in order to find in this way peace and security which he can not find in the narrow whirlpool of personal experience.

The Bible is a great source of wisdom and consolation and should be read frequently.

Galileo had already made a significant beginning toward a knowledge of the law of motion. He discovered the law of inertia and the law of bodies falling freely in the gravitational field of the earth.

If you want the answer to anything, go sit in Nature for awhile

Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it. One should earn one's living by work of which one is sure one is capable. Only when we do not have to be accountable to anybody can we find joy in scientific endeavor.

What interests me most is whether God could have made the world differently.

Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.

A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem.

You can't blame gravity for falling in love.

Most people see what is, and never see what can be.

Solitude is painful when one is young, but delightful when one is more mature.

I believe in intuitions and inspirations...I sometimes FEEL that I am right. I do not KNOW that I am.

One must console oneself with the thought that time has a sieve through which most of these important things run into the ocean of oblivion and what remains after this selection is often still trite and bad.

e idea of a personal God is quite alien to me and seems even naive. However, I am also not a "Freethinker" in the usual sense of the word because I find that this is in the main an attitude nourished exclusively by an opposition against naive superstition. My feeling is insofar religious as I am imbued with the consciousness of the insuffiency of the human mind to understand deeply the harmony of the Universe which we try to formulate as "laws of nature." It is this consciousness and humility I miss in the Freethinker mentality. Sincerely yours, Albert Einstein.

Playfullness is the essential feature of productive thought.

School failed me, and I failed the school. It bored me. The teachers behaved like Feldwebel (sergeants). I wanted to learn what I wanted to know, but they wanted me to learn for the exam. What I hated most was the competitive system there, and especially sports. Because of this, I wasn't worth anything, and several times they suggested I leave.

When you examine the lives of the most influential people who have ever walked among us, you discover one thread that winds through them all. They have been aligned first with their spiritual nature and only then with their physical selves.

If you cannot explain it simply, you do not understand it enough.

The highest principles for our aspirations and judgments are given to us in the Jewish-Christian religious tradition.

I am neither especially clever nor especially gifted. I am only very, very curious.

Let every man judge according to his own standards, by what he has himself read, not by what others tell him.

Work is the only thing that gives substance to life.

Not until we dare to regard ourselves as a nation, not until we respect ourselves, can we gain the esteem of others, or rather only then will it come of its own accord

Convictions can best be supported with experience and clear thinking.