Albert Einstein

Quotes

I want to know God's thoughts...the rest are details.
The more I study science, the more I believe in God.
The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?
Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity.
A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.
Information is not knowledge.
God does not play dice with the universe.
We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion.
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.
When the solution is simple, God is answering.
The man who regards life as meaningless is not merely unfortunate, but almost disqualified for life.
God is clever, but not dishonest.
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking.
When I study philosophical works I feel I am swallowing something which I don't have in my mouth.
The laws of gravity cannot be held responsible for people falling in love.
The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion. Herein lies the germ of all art and all true science. Anyone to whom this feeling is alien, who is no longer capable of wonderment and lives in a state of fear is a dead man. To know that what is impenatrable for us really exists and manifests itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, whose gross forms alone are intelligible to our poor faculties - this knowledge, this feeling ... that is the core of the true religious sent iment. In this sense, and in this sense alone, I rank myself amoung profoundly religious men.
Before God we are equally wise and equally foolish.
To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty...this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.
Any 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.
Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as [Gandhi] ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.
The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.
I think and think for months and years, ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.
If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?
As the circle of light increases, so does the circumference of darkness around it.
But could not our situation be compared to one of a menacing epidemic? People are unable to view this situation in its true light, for their eyes are blinded by passion. General fear and anxiety create hatred and aggressiveness. The adaptation to warlike aims and activities has corrupted the mentality of man; as a result, intelligent, objective and humane thinking has hardly any effect and is even suspected and persecuted as unpatriotic.
No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.
You teach me baseball and I'll teach you relativity...no we must not. You will learn about relativity faster than I learn baseball.
If A is a success in life, than A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.
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 the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.
In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.
Heroism at command, senseless brutality, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be part of so base an action!
It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.
How I wish that somewhere there existed an island for those who are wise and of goodwill! In such a place even I would be an ardent patriot.
When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.
Every day, man is making bigger and better fool-proof things, and every day, nature is making bigger and better fools. So far, I think nature is winning.
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.
Great spirits have always encountered violent oppostion from mediocre minds.
We have to do the best we can. This is our sacred human responsibility.
As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.
The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible.
It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.
The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.
A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.
A man sits with a pretty girl for an hour and it seems shorter than a minute. But tell that same man to sit on a hot stove for a minute, it is longer than any hour. That's relativity.
A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.
Imagination is more important than knowledge, for while knowledge defines everything we know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create.
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men with the hope they will change. Invariably they are both disappointed.
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.
Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.
Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
The person who reads too much and uses his brain too little will fall into lazy habits of thinking.
The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.
There's a Genius in all of us.
Today's problems cannot be solved if we still think the way we thought when we created them.
Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.
We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
When you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects.
Within every difficulty lies opportunity.
You can't blame gravity for falling in love.
You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.