Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Quotes

• Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

• Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.

• Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.

• If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.

• My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.

• Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.

• It is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions in political affairs.

• Imagination is more important than knowledge.

• I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

• We believe that an informed citizenry will act for life and not for death.

• I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.

• The individual must not merely wait and criticize, he must defend the cause the best he can. The fate of the world will be such as the world deserves.

• When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity.

• It is the theory that decides what we can observe.

• To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.

• It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry.

• Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.

• The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.
  It is the source of all art and science.

• 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 any talent for abstract, positive thinking.

• The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.