Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Quotes

• 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.