Albert Einstein Quotes

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.
Albert Einstein

Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Albert Einstein

The only real valuable thing is intuition.
Albert Einstein

...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought.

Albert Einstein



A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.
Albert Einstein

A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Albert Einstein


I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice.
Albert Einstein



God is subtle but he is not malicious.
Albert Einstein

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.
Albert Einstein

I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.
Albert Einstein

The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.
Albert Einstein

Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.
Albert Einstein

Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.
Albert Einstein

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
Albert Einstein

Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds.
Albert Einstein

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
Albert Einstein

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
Albert Einstein

Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it.
Albert Einstein

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
Albert Einstein

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.
Albert Einstein

He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.
Albert Einstein

God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically.
Albert Einstein

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

Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.
Albert Einstein

If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.



I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details.
Albert Einstein

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
Albert Einstein


Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.
Albert Einstein


The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.

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

Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.

Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves.

I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.

Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein

The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.
Albert Einstein

We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
Albert Einstein

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.
Albert Einstein


Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.
Albert Einstein

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
Albert Einstein

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

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
Albert Einstein

One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This 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.

Albert Einstein


Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.
Albert Einstein

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
Albert Einstein

Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.
Albert Einstein

Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity.
Albert Einstein

If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.
Albert Einstein


Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves.
Albert Einstein

No, this trick won't work. How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important biological phenomenon as first love ?


I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.


Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.

A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

The 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 knowledge.

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.

You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.

One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This 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.

...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought.

He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.

A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.


The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.


Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.



In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.


Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.

Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.

Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!
Albert Einstein

No, this trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?
Albert Einstein

What humanity owes to personalities like Buddha, Moses, and Jesus ranks for me higher than all the achievements of the enquiring and constructive mind.



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.
Albert Einstein

Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever.
The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.
Albert Einstein

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.
Albert Einstein



The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.
Albert Einstein

A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.
Albert Einstein

The 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 knowledge.
Albert Einstein

The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead.
Albert Einstein

In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.

Albert Einstein