Quotes
Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.
Only a life lived for others is a life worth while.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
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.
I have no particular talent. I am merely inquisitive.
Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.
Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
The only source of knowledge is experience
Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.
Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age 18.
The wireless telegraph is not difficult to understand. The ordinary telegraph is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New York, and it meows in Los Angeles. The wireless is the same, only without the cat.
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
One cannot help but be in awe
when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity,
of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.
It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend
a little of this mystery every day.
Never lose a holy curiosity.
It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.
I, at any rate, am convinced that He (God) does not throw dice.
The important thing is not to stop questioning; curiosity has its own reason for existing.
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.
Falling in love is not at all the most stupid thing that people do — but gravitation cannot be held responsible for it.
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.
Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.
Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.
Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.
Nature shows us only the tail of the lion. But I do not doubt that the lion belongs to it even though he cannot at once reveal himself because of his enormous size.
Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.
It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.
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.
- "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.
Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics, I can assure you that mine are all greater
In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.
The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
Truth is what stands the test of experience.
Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Human knowledge and skills alone cannot lead humanity to a happy and dignified life. Humanity has every reason to place the proclaimers of high moral standards and values above the discoverers of objective truth.
Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
Common sense is nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down by the mind before you reach eighteen.
Ask
I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.
Authority
To punish me for my contempt of authority, Fate has made me an authority myself.
Focus
Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.
Give
The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.
It is every man's obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it.
The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving.
Ideas
If I give you a pfennig, you will be one pfennig richer and I'll be one pfennig poorer. But if I give you an idea, you will have a new idea, but I shall still have it, too.
It is almost a miracle that modern teaching methods have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiousity of inquiry; for what this delicate little plant needs more than anything, besides stimulation, is freedom.
Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.
The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.
Imagine
Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions.
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions.
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.
Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.
I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.
Mathematics
Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas. One seeks the most general ideas of operation which will bring together in simple, logical and unified form the largest possible circle of formal relationships. In this effort toward logical beauty spiritual formulas are discovered necessary for the deeper penetration into the laws of nature.
Persist
It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.
I love to travel, but hate to arrive.
I don't pretend to understand the universe — it's much bigger than I am.
Personal
When I was young, I found out that the big toe always ends up making a hole in a sock. So I stopped wearing socks.
It is my view that the vegetarian manner of living by its purely physical effect on the human temperament would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind.
Perspective
Look at things from a universal standpoint, and you realize there are bigger and better things to worry about.
Religion
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.
Science
One thing I have learned in a long life: All our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike — and yet it is the most precious thing we have.
No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.
The faster you go, the shorter you are.
A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.
Simplify
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex … It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.
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.
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
God always takes the simplest way.
I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.
If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
It should be possible to explain the laws of physics to a barmaid.
Society
My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities.
Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others; it is the only means.
Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society.
Success
If A equals success, then the formula is A=X+Y+Z where
- X is work
- Y is play
- Z is keep your mouth shut
You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.
Tax
The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.
[on filing for tax returns] This is too difficult for a mathematician. It takes a philosopher.
Think
We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.
Information is not knowledge.
The only source of knowledge is experience.
Wisdom is not a product of schooling but the product of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.
Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events.
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.
I think that only daring speculation can lead us further and not accumulation of facts.
Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.
Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
Most teachers waste their time by asking questions which are intended to discover what a pupil does not know, whereas the true art of questioning has for its purpose to discover what the pupil knows or is capable of knowing.
Travel
I love to travel, but hate to arrive.
War
I could burn my fingers that I wrote that first letter to Roosevelt.
(Comment after the bombing of Hiroshima, regarding his letter to Roosevelt warning of the possibility of the development of a nuclear weapon.)
You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.