Albert Einstein Quotes

I believe in standardizing automobiles, not human beings.

It's not that life has been easy, perfect or exactly as expected. I just choose to be happy and grateful no matter how it all turns out. If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.

Compounding is the 8th wonder of the world.

One can only continue to expect to be read if one omits everything that is unimportant.

The thing is, not to stop questioning.

The grand aim of all science is to cover the greatest number of empirical facts by logical deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms.

If one holds these high principles clearly before one's eyes, and compares them with the life and spirit of our times, then it appears glaringly that civilized mankind finds itself at present in grave danger. In the totalitarian states it is the rulers themselves who strive actually to destroy that spirit of humanity. In less threatened parts it is nationalism and intolerance, as well as the oppression of the individuals by economic means, which threaten to choke these most precious traditions.

Learn from yesterday, live for today.

Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.

There is no vaccine against stupidity.

Einstein was once asked how many feet are in a mile. Einstein's reply was "I don't know, why should I fill my brain with facts I can find in two minutes in any standard reference book?

The work on satisfactory formulation of technical patents was a true blessing for me. It compelled me to be many-sided in thought, and also offered important stimulation for thought about physics. Following a practical profession is a blessing for people of my type. Because the academic career puts a young person in a sort of compulsory situation to produce scientific papers in impressive quantity, a temptation to superficiality arises that only strong characters are able to resist.

The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.

I am an absolute pacifist...It is an instinctive feeling. It is a feeling that possesses me, because the murder of men is disgusting.

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life. All that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.

Imagination is the most powerful force in the universe.

I don't teach my students, I provide the circumstances in which they can learn.

That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don't notice that the time passes.

The concept of marriage must have been thought up by an unimaginative pig.

In scientific thinking are always present elements of poetry. Science and music requires a thought homogeneous.

In the temple of science are many mansions, and various indeed are they that dwell therein and the motives that have led them thither. Many take to science out of a joyful sense of superior intellectual power; science is their own special sport to which they look for vivid experience and the satisfaction of ambition; many others are to be found in the temple who have offered the products of their brains on this altar for purely utilitarian purposes.

If one tries to navigate unknown waters one runs the risk of shipwreck

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot.

External conditions can, to a certain extent, reduce, but never cancel individual repsonsibility.

It is really a puzzle what drives one to take one's work so devilishly seriously.

It strikes me as unfair, and even in bad taste, to select a few of them for boundless admiration, attributing superhuman powers of mind and character to them. This has been my fate, and the contrast between the popular estimate of my powers and achievements and the reality is simply grotesque.

I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his [sic] creatures, or has a will of the type of which we are conscious ourselves.

Strange is our situation here on earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.

Only strong characters can resist the temptation of superficial analysis.

Thinking is hard work; that's why so few do it.

A thought that sometimes makes me hazy: Am I - or are the others crazy?

Common sense invents and constructs no less than its own field than science does in its domain. It is, however, in the nature of common sense not to be aware of this situation.

You believe in a God who plays dice, I in complete law and order.

It is not so important where one settles down. The best thing is to follow your instincts without too much reflection.

A successful man is he who receives a great deal from his fellow men, usually incomparably more than corresponds to his service to them. The value of a man, however, should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.

[Ernest Rutherford is]...a second Newton.

The true definition of madness is repeating the same action, over and over, hoping for a different result.

You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created. Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. A life lived for others is a life worthwhile.

In order to be an immaculate member of a flock of sheep, one must above all be a sheep oneself.

There is separation of colored people from white people in the United States. That separation is not a disease of colored people. It is a disease of white people. I do not intend to be quiet about it.

A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.

The most superior of scientific goals is to embrace a maximum of experiment with a minimum of hypotheses.

The legs are the wheels of creativity.

The wireless telegraph is not difficult to understand. The ordinary telegraph is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New York, and it meows in Los Angeles. The wireless is the same, only without the cat.

I cannot accept any concept of God based on the fear of life or the fear of death, or blind faith. I cannot prove to you that there is no personal God, but if I were to speak of him I would be a liar.

What I see in Nature is a grand design that we can understand only imperfectly, one with which a responsible person must look at with humility.

The aim (of education) must be the training of independently acting and thinking individuals who, however, see in the service to the community their highest life problem.

If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare me a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German, and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.