Collected Quotes from Albert Einstein

C
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It
takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite
direction."
d
"Imagination is more important than kno!ledge."
"
""ravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."
"
"I !ant to kno! "od#s thoughts$ the rest are details."
"
"%he hardest thing in the !orld to understand is the income tax."
"
"&eality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
"
"%he only real valuable thing is intuition."
"
"A person starts to live !hen he can live outside himself."

"I am convinced that 'e ("od) does not play dice."
"
""od is subtle but he is not malicious."
"
"*eakness of attitude becomes !eakness of character."
"
"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
"
"%he eternal mystery of the !orld is its comprehensibility."
"
"+ometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
"
"+cience !ithout religion is lame. &eligion !ithout science is blind."
"
"Anyone !ho has never made a mistake has never tried anything ne!."
"
""reat spirits have often encountered violent opposition from !eak minds."
"
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
"
"Common sense is the collection of pre,udices ac-uired by age eighteen."
"
"+cience is a !onderful thing if one does not have to earn one#s living at it."
"
"%he secret to creativity is kno!ing ho! to hide your sources."
"
"%he only thing that interferes !ith my learning is my education."
"
""od does not care about our mathematical difficulties. 'e integrates
empirically."
e
"%he !hole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."
"
"%echnological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."

".eace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
"
"%he most incomprehensible thing about the !orld is that it is comprehensible."

"*e can#t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking !e used !hen !e
created them."
c
"Education is !hat remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in
school."
s
"%he important thing is not to stop -uestioning. Curiosity has its o!n reason for
existing."

"/o not !orry about your difficulties in 0athematics. I can assure you mine are
still greater."
s
"E-uations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an
e-uation is something for eternity."
e
"If A is a success in life, then A e-uals x plus y plus 1. *ork is x$ y is play$
and 1 is keeping your mouth shut."
a
"%!o things are infinite2 the universe and human stupidity$ and I#m not sure about
the the universe."
t
"As far as the la!s of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far
as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
a
"*hoever undertakes to set himself up as a ,udge of %ruth and 3no!ledge is
ship!recked by the laughter of the gods."
s
"I kno! not !ith !hat !eapons *orld *ar III !ill be fought, but *orld *ar I4 !ill
be fought !ith sticks and stones."
b
"In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be
a sheep."

"%he fear of death is the most un,ustified of all fears, for there#s no risk of
accident for someone !ho#s dead."
a
"%oo many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. %his is a cruel libel, even
if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves."
i
"'eroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes
by the name of patriotism ho! passionately I hate them5"
b
"6o, this trick !on#t !ork...'o! on earth are you ever going to explain in terms
of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love7"
o
"0y religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit
!ho reveals himself in the slight details !e are able to perceive !ith our frail
and feeble mind."
a
"8es, !e have to divide up our time like that, bet!een our politics and our
e-uations. 9ut to me our e-uations are far more important, for politics are only a
matter of present concern. A mathematical e-uation stands forever."
m
"%he release of atom po!er has changed everything except our !ay of thinking...the
solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had kno!n, I
should have become a !atchmaker."
s
""reat spirits have al!ays found violent opposition from mediocrities. %he latter
cannot understand it !hen a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary
pre,udices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."

"%he most beautiful thing !e can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of
all true art and all science. 'e to !hom this emotion is a stranger, !ho can no
longer pause to !onder and stand rapt in a!e, is as good as dead2 his eyes are
closed."
c
"A man#s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and
social ties$ no religious basis is necessary. 0an !ould indeeded be in a poor !ay
if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of re!ard after death."
i
"%he further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it
seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of
life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational
kno!ledge."
k
"6o! he has departed from this strange !orld a little ahead of me. %hat means
nothing. .eople like us, !ho believe in physics, kno! that the distinction bet!een
past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."
p
"8ou see, !ire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. 8ou pull his tail in
6e! 8ork and his head is meo!ing in :os Angeles. /o you understand this7 And radio
operates exactly the same !ay2 you send signals here, they receive them there. %he
only difference is that there is no cat."
o
";ne had to cram all this stuff into one#s mind for the examinations, !hether one
liked it or not. %his coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had
passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems
distasteful to me for an entire year."
d
"...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from
everyday life !ith its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters
of one#s o!n evershifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from
the personal life into the !orld of ob,ective perception and thought."
t
"'e !ho ,oyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt.
'e has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord !ould
surely suffice. %his disgrace to civili1ation should be done a!ay !ith at once.
'eroism at command, ho! violently I hate all this, ho! despicable and ignoble !ar
is$ I !ould rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my
conviction that killing under the cloak of !ar is nothing but an act of murder."
c
"A human being is a part of a !hole, called by us <universe<, a part limited in
time and space. 'e experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something
separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. %his
delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to
affection for a fe! persons nearest to us. ;ur task must be to free ourselves from
this prison by !idening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures
and the !hole of nature in its beauty."
a
"6ot everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted
counts." (+ign hanging in Einstein#s office at .rinceton)
c
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