Einstein Albert Quotes & Sayings

Honestly, I cannot understand what people mean when they talk about the freedom of the human will. I have a feeling, for instance, that I will something or other; but what relation this has with freedom I cannot understand at all. I feel that I will to light my pipe and I do it; but how can I connect this up with the idea of freedom? What is behind the act of willing to light the pipe? Another act of willing? Schopenhauer once said: Der Mensch kann was er will; er kann aber nicht wollen was er will (Man can do what he will but he cannot will what he wills). — Albert Einstein

What a person thinks on his own without being stimulated by the thoughts and experiences of the other people is even in the best case rather paltry and monotonous. — Albert Einstein

Life isn't worth living, unless it is lived for someone else. — Albert Einstein

I wish I were a poet. I've never confessed that to anyone, and I'm confessing it to you, because you've given me reason to feel that I can trust you. I've spent my life observing the universe, mostly in my mind's eye. It's been a tremendously rewarding life, a wonderful life. I've been able to explore the origins of time and space with some of the great living thinkers. But I wish I were a poet.
Albert Einstein, a hero of mine, once wrote, 'Our situation is the following. We are standing in front of a closed box which we cannot open.'
I'm sure I don't have to tell you that the vast majority of the universe is composed of dark matter. The fragile balance depends on things we'll never be able to see, hear, smell, taste, or touch. Life itself depends on them. What's real? What isn't real? Maybe those aren't the right questions to be asking. What does life depend on?
I wish I had made things for life to depend on. — Jonathan Safran Foer

Anybody who really wants to abolish war must resolutely declare himself in favor of his own country's resigning a portion of sovereignty in place of international institutions. — Albert Einstein

Experience alone can decide on truth. — Albert Einstein

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

We must not only learn to tolerate our differences. We must welcome them as the richness and diversity which can lead to true intelligence. — Albert Einstein

For an idea which, at first, does not seem absurd, there is no hope. — Albert Einstein

If this conviction had not been a strongly emotional one and if those searching for knowledge had not been inspired by Spinoza's Amor Dei Intellectualis, they would hardly have been capable of that untiring devotion which alone enables man to attain his greatest achievements. — Albert Einstein

The ancients knew something, which we seem to have forgotten. — Albert Einstein

If you could buckle your Bugs Bunny wristwatch to a ray of light, your watch would continue ticking but the hands wouldn't move. That's because at the speed of light there is no time. Time is relative to velocity. At high speeds, time is literally stretched. Since light is the ultimate in velocity, at light-speed time is stretched to its absolute and becomes static. Albert Einstein figured that one out. — Tom Robbins

For human community life cannot long endure on a basis of crude force, brutality, terror, and hate. — Albert Einstein

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. — Albert Einstein

It is our American habit if we find the foundations of our educational structure unsatisfactory to add another story or wing. — Albert Einstein

It is impossible to solve significant problems using the same knowledge that created them. — Albert Einstein

I am exclusively occupied with the problem of gravitation and hope with the help of a local mathematician friend [Marcel Grossman] to overcome all the difficulties. One thing is certain, however, that never in life have I been quite so tormented. A great respect for mathematics has been instilled within me, the subtler aspects of which, in my stupidity, I regarded until now as pure luxury. — Albert Einstein

Work is the only thing that gives substance to life. — Albert Einstein

The special theory of relativity owes its origins to Maxwell's equations of the electromagnetic field. — Albert Einstein

[There is] a duty in refusing to cooperate in any undertaking that violates the Constitutional rights of the individual. This holds in particular for all inquisitions that are concerned with the private life and the political affiliations of the citizens. — Albert Einstein

When the poet Paul Valery once asked Albert Einstein if he kept a notebook to record his ideas, Einstein looked at him with mild but genuine surprise. "Oh, that's not necessary," he replied . "It's so seldom I have one. — Bill Bryson

A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port, together with some of the surrounding territory. — Albert Einstein

I myself should also be dead already, but I am still here. — Albert Einstein

The cult of individuals is always, in my view, unjustified. To be sure, nature distributes her gifts unevenly among her children. But there are plenty of the well-endowed, thank God, and I am firmly convinced that most of them live quiet, unobtrusive lives. 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. — Albert Einstein

My life is a simple thing that would interest no one. It is a known fact that I was born, and that is all that is necessary. — Albert Einstein

Don't let your brain interfere with your heart. — Albert Einstein

Fantasy is way more important than knowledge because knowledge is limited. — Albert Einstein

If I were not a Jew I would be a Quaker. — Albert Einstein

Not all that counts, can be counted — Albert Einstein

Compound interest is the eighth natural wonder of the world and the most powerful thing I have ever encountered. — Albert Einstein

Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere. — Albert Einstein

Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it ... he who doesn't ... pays it. — Albert Einstein

It is impossible to get out of a problem by using the same kind of thinking that it took to get into it. — Albert Einstein

Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society. — Albert Einstein

Relativity is a purely scientific matter and has nothing to do with religion. — Albert Einstein

I am also convinced that one gains the purest joy from spirited things only when they are not tied in with earning one's livelihood. — Albert Einstein

He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed. — Albert Einstein

No path leads from a knowledge of that which is to that which should be. — Albert Einstein

I wouldn't want to live if I did not have my work. In any case, it's good that I'm already old and personally don't have to count on a prolonged future. — Albert Einstein

A true genius admits that he/she knows nothing. — Albert Einstein

Everything has changed except the way man thinks (when the hydrogen bomb was exploded) — Albert Einstein

I believe in mystery and, frankly, I sometimes face this mystery with great fear. In other words, I think that there are many things in the universe that we cannot perceive or penetrate, and that also we experience some of the most beautiful things in life only in a very primitive form. Only in relation to these mysteries do I consider myself to be a religious man ... — Albert Einstein

Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury - to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best for both the body and the mind. — Albert Einstein

I am predominantly critical concerning the activities, and especially the political activities, through history of the official clergy. — Albert Einstein

The ability to portray people in still life and in motion requires the highest measure of intuition and talent. — Albert Einstein

Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others, it is the only means. — Albert Einstein

The faster you go, the shorter you are. — Albert Einstein

It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure. — Albert Einstein

In two weeks the sheeplike masses of any country can be worked up by the newspapers into such a state of excited fury that men are prepared to put on uniforms and kill and be killed, for the sake of the sordid ends of a few interested parties. — Albert Einstein

Betterment of conditions the world over is not essentially dependent on scientific knowledge but on the fulfillment of human traditions and ideals. — Albert Einstein

I didn't arrive at my understanding of the fundamental laws of the universe through my rational mind. — Albert Einstein

One is born into a herd of buffaloes and must be glad if one is not trampled under foot before one's time. — Albert Einstein

It is true that the grasping of truth is not possible without empirical basis. However, the deeper we penetrate and the more extensive and embracing our theories become the less empirical knowledge is needed to determine those theories. — Albert Einstein

There is no scientific antidote, only education. You've got to change the way people think. I am not interested in disarmament talks between nations ... What I want to do is to disarm the mind. After that, everything else will automatically follow. The ultimate weapon for such mental disarmament is international education. — Albert Einstein

I think 99 times and find nothing. I stop thinking, swim in silence, and the truth comes to me. — Albert Einstein

A desk, some pads, a pencil, and a large basket
to hold all of mu mistakes. — Albert Einstein

Never regard study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn — Albert Einstein

The value of a man resides in what he gives — Albert Einstein

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 — Albert Einstein

The truth of a theory can never be proven, for one never knows if future experience will contradict its conclusions. — Albert Einstein

I never said half the crap people said I did. — Albert Einstein

My internal and external life depend so much on the work of others that I must make an extreme effort to give as much as I receive. — Albert Einstein

The point is to develop the childlike inclination for play and the childlike desire for recognition and to guide the child over to important fields for society. Such a school demands from the teacher that he be a kind of artist in his province. — Albert Einstein

I do know that kind fate allowed me to find a couple of nice ideas after many years of feverish labor. — Albert Einstein

People love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results. — Albert Einstein

I regard class differences as contrary to justice and, in the last resort, based on force. — Albert Einstein

Nature hides her secrets because of her essential loftiness, but not by means of ruse. — Albert Einstein

I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one. — Albert Einstein

ACADEMIC CHAIRS ARE MANY, but wise and noble teachers are few; lecture-rooms are numerous and large, but the number of young people who genuinely thirst after truth and justice is small. — Albert Einstein

By academic freedom I understand the right to search for truth and to publish and teach what one holds to be true. This right implies also a duty: one must not conceal any part of what on has recognized to be true. It is evident that any restriction on academic freedom acts in such a way as to hamper the dissemination of knowledge among the people and thereby impedes national judgment and action. — Albert Einstein

Condemnation before investigation, is the highest form of ignorance. — Albert Einstein

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe. — Albert Einstein

I see a pattern, but my imagination cannot picture the maker of that pattern. I see a clock, but I cannot envision the clockmaker. The human mind is unable to conceive of the four dimensions, so how can it conceive of a God, before whom a thousand years and a thousand dimensions are as one? — Albert Einstein

Peace comes through understanding — Albert Einstein

Toreador pants make your feet look big too — Albert Einstein

It is a very high goal which, with our weak powers, we can reach only very inadequately, but which gives a sure foundation to our aspirations and valuations. — Albert Einstein

The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking. If we want to change the world we have to change our thinking ... no problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it. We must learn to see the world anew. — Albert Einstein

Insofar as we may at all claim that slavery has been abolished today, we owe its abolition to the practical consequences of science — Albert Einstein

I know quite certainly that I myself have no special talent; curiosity, obsession and dogged endurance, combined with self-criticism, have brought me to my ideas. — Albert Einstein

I was supposed to choose apractical profession, but this was simply unbearable to me. — Albert Einstein

I never thought that others would take my theories so much more seriously than I did. — Albert Einstein

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character. — Albert Einstein

Working on the final formulation of technological patents was a veritable blessing for me. It enforced many-sided thinking and also provided important stimuli to physical thought. [Academia] places a young person under a kind of compulsion to produce impressive quantities of scientific publications; a temptation to superficiality. — Albert Einstein

There is nothing divine about morality, it is a purely human affair. — Albert Einstein

With fame I become more and more stupid, which of course is a very common phenomenon. — Albert Einstein

Thomas Pynchon looks exactly like Thomas Pynchon should look. He is tall, he wears lumberjack shirts and blue jeans. He has Albert Einstein white hair and Bugs Bunny front teeth. — Salman Rushdie

As a child I received instruction in both the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene. — Albert Einstein

God is clever, but not dishonest. — Albert Einstein

In my personal experience I have hardly come to know the wretchedness of mankind better than as a result of the general theory of relativity and everything connected to it. But it doesn't bother me. — Albert Einstein

I believe that we don't need to worry about what happens after this life, as long as we do our duty here-to love and to serve. — Albert Einstein

I hate crowds and making speeches. I hate facing cameras and having to answer to a crossfire of questions. Why popular fancy should seize upon me, a scientist, dealing in abstract things and happy if left alone, is a manifestation of mass psychology that is beyond me. — Albert Einstein

It is impossible to get anywhere without sinning against reason. — Albert Einstein

The traditional religions worry me. Their long history proves that they have not understood the meaning of the commandment: Thou shalt not kill. If we want to save this world from unimaginable destruction we should concentrate not on the faraway God , but on the heart of the individual. — Albert Einstein

The idea of achieving security through national armament is, at the present state of military technique, a disastrous illusion. — Albert Einstein

Working with Adrien Brody was like going to Julliard, but instead of four years, I went for four weeks. He was like the Albert Einstein of professors, it was just the best experience of my life. Adrien was the most influential mentor in my acting career thus far, and even after the movie he continues to mentor me. — Sami Gayle

What can the schools do to defend democracy? Should they preach a specific political doctrine? I believe they should not. If they are able to teach young people to have a critical mind and a socially oriented attitude, they will have done all that is necessary. — Albert Einstein

After a certain high level of technical skill is achieved, science and art tend to coalesce in esthetics, plasticity, and form. The greatest scientists are artists as well. Remark — Albert Einstein

We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive. — Albert Einstein

I have become rather like King Midas, except that everything turns not into gold but into a circus. — Albert Einstein

Since our inner experiences consist of reproductions, and combinations of sensory impressions, the concept of a soul without a body seem to me to be empty and devoid of meaning. — Albert Einstein