Anybody who really wants to abolish war must resolutely declare himself in favor of his own country's resigning a portion of sovereignty in place of international institutions.
Albert EinsteinPhilosophers play with the word, like a child with a doll.... It does not mean that everything in life is relative.
Albert EinsteinOne of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought.
Albert EinsteinThere's something to be said for relatives...it has to be said because it's unprintable!
Albert EinsteinI believe, indeed, that overemphasis on the purely intellectual attitude, often directed solely to the practical and factual, in our education, has led directly to the impairment of ethical values. I am not thinking so much of the dangers with which technical progress has directly confronted mankind, as of the stifling of mutual human considerations by a 'matter-of-fact' habit of thought which has come to lie like a killing frost upon human relations. Without 'ethical culture' there is no salvation for humanity.
Albert EinsteinMy only refuge, as a serious young man, from the despair of my financial burden to my family, is that I did everything I could to never permit myself any amusements or diversions except those afforded by my studies.
Albert EinsteinIt is also a natural thing for a serious young man that he should form for himself as precise an idea as possible of the goal of his desires.
Albert EinsteinIt is difficult to say what truth is, but sometimes it is so easy to recognize a falsehood.
Albert EinsteinDon't be too hard on me. Everyone has to sacrifice at the altar of stupidity from time to time.
Albert EinsteinOur task is to widen our circle of compassion to include all living beings and all of nature
Albert EinsteinThe ability to portray people in still life and in motion requires the highest measure of intuition and talent.
Albert EinsteinThe religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. The religion which based on experience, which refuses dogmatic. If there's any religion that would cope the scientific needs it will be Buddhism.
Albert EinsteinThanks to my fortunate idea of introducing the relativity principle into physics, you (and others) now enormously overrate my scientific abilities, to the point where this makes me quite uncomfortable.
Albert EinsteinAs soon as science has emerged from its initial stages, theoretical advances are no longer achieved merely by a process of arrangement. Guided by empirical data, the investigator rather develops a system of thought which, in general, is built up logically from a small number of fundamental assumptions, the so-called axioms. We call such a system of thought a theory. The theory finds the justification for its existence in the fact that it correlates a large number of single observations, and it is just here that the 'truth' of the theory lies.
Albert EinsteinWhy does this magnificent applied science which saves work and makes life easier bring us so little happiness? ... The simple answer runs: 'Because we have not yet learned to make sensible use of it.'
Albert EinsteinIt is true that my parents were worried because I began to speak fairly late, so that they even consulted a doctor. I can't say how old I was - but surely not less than three.
Albert EinsteinPeople start their lives at last when they are able to live for something other than themselves.
Albert EinsteinDuring the last century, and part of the one before, it was widely held that there was an unreconcilable conflict between knowledge and belief.
Albert EinsteinThe same thinking and actions that created our problems cannot be used to solve them.
Albert EinsteinEven trivial events demonstrate strong devotion to the Universe and small concern for ego.
Albert EinsteinThere two things that are infinite, human stupidity and the universe, I don't know about the universe
Albert EinsteinI have become rather like King Midas, except that everything turns not into gold but into a circus.
Albert EinsteinUnlimited competition leads to a huge waste of labor, and to that crippling of the social consciousness of individuals.
Albert EinsteinThe importance of a problem should not be judged by the number of pages devoted to it.
Albert EinsteinIt may be possible to fight intolerance, stupidity, and fanaticism seperately, but when they come together there is no hope.
Albert EinsteinMen should continue to fight, but they should fight for things worth while, not for imaginary geographical lines, racial prejudices and private greed draped in the color's of patriotism.
Albert EinsteinArt is standing with one hand extended into the universe and one hand extended into the world, and letting ourselves be a conduit for passing energy.
Albert EinsteinIt is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.
Albert EinsteinConcepts which have proved useful for ordering things easily assume so great an authority over us, that we forget their terrestrial origin and accept them as unalterable facts. They then become labeled as 'conceptual necessities,' etc. The road of scientific progress is frequently blocked for long periods by such errors.
Albert EinsteinWhat I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility. This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism.
Albert EinsteinThe ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth.
Albert EinsteinIt would seem that men always need some idiotic fiction in the name of which they can hate one another. Once it was religion. Now it is the State.
Albert Einstein