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I Do Not At All Believe In Human Freedom In The Philosophical Sense... Schopenhauer’s Saying, ‘a Man Can Do What He Wants, But Not Will What He Wants,’ Has Been A Very Real Inspiration To Me Since My Youth; It Has Been A Continual Consolation In The Face Of Life’s Hardships, My Own And Others’, And An Unfailing Wellspring Of Tolerance. This Realization Mercifully Mitigates The Easily Paralyzing Sense Of Responsibility And Prevents Us From Taking Ourselves And Other People Too Seriously; It Is Conducive To A View Of Life Which, In Part, Gives Humour Its Due.

-Albert Einstein

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I Do Not At

Albert Einstein

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I Do Not At All Believe In Human Freedom In The Philosophical Sense... Schopenhauer’s Saying, ‘a Man Can Do What He Wants, But Not Will What He Wants,’ Has Been A Very Real Inspiration To Me Since My Youth; It Has Been A Continual Consolation In The Face Of Life’s Hardships, My Own And Others’, And An Unfailing Wellspring Of Tolerance. This Realization Mercifully Mitigates The Easily Paralyzing Sense Of Responsibility And Prevents Us From Taking Ourselves And Other People Too Seriously; It Is Conducive To A View Of Life Which, In Part, Gives Humour Its Due.

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In The Shadow Of The Atomic Bomb It Has Become Even More Apparent That All Men Are, Indeed, Brothers.

The Ancients Knew Something, Which We Seem To Have Forgotten.

Well-being And Happiness Never Appeared To Me As An Absolute Aim. I Am Even Inclined To Compare Such Moral Aims To The Ambitions Of A Pig.

We Dance For Laughter, We Dance For Tears, We Dance For Madness, We Dance For Fears, We Dance For Hopes, We Dance For Screams, We Are The Dancers, We Create The Dreams.

Live With Purpose. Don't Let People Or Things Around You Get You Down.

Live With Purpose

If People Are Good Because They Fear Punishment, And Hope For Reward, Then We Are A Sorry Lot Indeed.

If I Were To Remain Silent, I'd Be Guilty Of Complicity.

No Amount Of Experimentation Can Ever Prove Me Right; A Single Experiment Can Prove Me Wrong.

One Is Born Into A Herd Of Buffaloes And Must Be Glad If One Is Not Trampled Under Foot Before One's Time.

In The Matter Of Physics, The First Lessons Should Contain Nothing But What Is Experimental And Interesting To See. A Pretty Experiment Is In Itself Often More Valuable Than Twenty Formulae Extracted From Our Minds.

I Am Strongly Drawn To A Frugal Life And Am Often Oppressively Aware That I Am Engrossing An Undue Amount Of The Labor Of My Fellow Men.

Nationalism Is The Measels Of Mankind.

War Cannot Be Humanized. It Can Only Be Abolished.

Once You Stop Learning, You Start Dying

Everybody Felt His Superiority, But Nobody Felt Oppressed By It. Though He Had No Illusions About People And Human Affairs, He Was Full Of Kindness Toward Everybody And Everything. Never Did He Give The Impression Of Domineering, Always Of Serving And Helping. He Was Extremely Conscientious, Without Allowing Anything To Assume Undue Importance; A Subtle Humor Guarded Him, Which Was Reflected In His Eyes And In His Smile.

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; For This Delicate Little Plant, Aside From Stimulation, Stands Mainly In Need Of Freedom; Without This It Goes To Wrack And Ruin Without Fail. It Is A Grave Mistake To Think That The Enjoyment Of Seeing And Searching Can Be Promoted By Means Of Coercion And A Sense Of Duty.

Pure Logical Thinking Cannot Yield Us Any Knowledge Of The Empirical World. All Knowledge Of Reality Starts From Experience And Ends In It.

You Can Never Solve A Problem On The Level On Which It Was Created.

A New Idea Comes Suddenly And In A Rather Intuitive Way, But Intuition Is Nothing But The Outcome Of Earlier Intellectual Experience.

What Artistic And Scientific Experience Have In Common - Where The World Ceases To Be The Scene Of Our Personal Hopes And Wishes, Where We Face It As Free Beings Admiring, Asking, And Observing, There We Enter The Realm Of Art And Science. If What Is Seen And Experienced Is Portrayed In The Language Of Logic, We Are Engaged In Science. If It Is Communicated Through Forms Whose Connections Are Not Accessible To The Conscious Mind But Are Recognized Intuitively As Meaninful, Then We Are Engaged In Art. Common To Both Is The Loving Devotion To That Which Transcends Personal Concerns And Volition.

In My Experience, The Best Creative Work Is Never Done When One Is Unhappy.

Human Beings, In Their Thinking, Feeling And Acting Are Not Free Agents But Are As Causally Bound As The Stars In Their Motion.

Intelligence And Genius

Thought Provoking

Peace Cannot Be Kept By Force. It Can Only Be Achieved By Understanding. You Cannot Subjugate A Nation Forcibly Unless You Wipe Out Every Man, Woman, And Child. Unless You Wish To Use Such Drastic Measures, You Must Find A Way Of Settling Your Disputes Without Resort To Arms.

The Content Of Scientific Theory Itself Offers No Moral Foundation For The Personal Conduct Of Life.

Why Does This Magnificent Applied Science Which Saves Work And Makes Life Easier Bring Us So Little Happiness? ... The Simple Answer Runs: 'because We Have Not Yet Learned To Make Sensible Use Of It.'

The Really Good Music, Whether Of The East Or Of The West, Cannot Be Analyzed.

Desire For Approval And Recognition Is A Healthy Motive, But The Desire To Be Acknowledged As Better, Stronger, Or More Intelligent Than A Fellow Being Or Fellow Scholar Easily Leads To An Excessively Egoistic Psychological Adjustment, Which May Become Injurious For The Individual And For The Community.

I Believe Serious Progress (in The Abolition Of War) Can Be Achieved Only When Men Become Organized On An International Scale And Refuse, As A Body, To Enter Military Or War Service.

From The Viewpoint Of A Jesuit Priest I Am, Of Course, And Have Always Been An Atheist.

If There Is A God

Don't Be Too Hard On Me. Everyone Has To Sacrifice At The Altar Of Stupidity From Time To Time.

If You're Not Sure Why You're Doing Something, You Can Never Do Enough Of It. Imagination Is More Important Than Knowledge.

Life Is A Mystery, Not A Problem Waiting To Be Solved.

It Is Always Delightful When A Great And Beautiful Idea Proves To Be Consonant With Reality.

If This Being Is Omnipotent, Then Every Occurrence, Including Every Human Action, Every Human Thought, And Every Human Feeling And Aspiration Is Also His Work; How Is It Possible To Think Of Holding Men Responsible For Their Deeds And Thoughts Before Such An Almighty Being? In Giving Out Punishment And Rewards He Would To A Certain Extent Be Passing Judgment On Himself. How Can This Be Combined With The Goodness And Righteousness Ascribed To Him?

It Is Certainly True That Principles Cannot Be More Securely Founded Than On Experience And Consciously Clear Thinking.

Pure Mathematics Is, In Its Way, The Poetry Of Logical Ideas. ... [by Seeking] Logical Beauty Spiritual Formulas Are Discovered Necessary For The Deeper Penetration Into The Laws Of Nature.

Have The Courage To Take Your Own Thoughts Seriously, For They Will Shape You.

If The Moon, In The Act Of Completing Its Eternal Way Around The Earth, Were Gifted With Self-consciousness, It Would Feel Thoroughly Convinced That It Was Traveling Its Way Of Its Own Accord On The Strength Of A Resolution Taken Once And For All. So Would A Being, Endowed With Higher Insight And More Perfect Intelligence, Watching Man And His Doings, Smile About Man's Illusion That He Was Acting According To His Own Free Will.

Problems Cannot Be Solved By Thinking Within The Framework In Which The Problems Were Created.

I Believe In Intuitions And Inspirations...i Sometimes Feel That I Am Right. I Do Not Know That I Am.

In The Middle Of Every Difficulty Lies Opportunity.

I See My Life In Terms Of Music.

In Quitting This Strange World He Has Once Again Preceded Me By A Little. That Doesn't Mean Anything. For Those Of Us Who Believe In Physics, This Separation Between Past, Present, And Future Is Only An Illusion, However Tenacious.

Great Spirits Have Always Encountered Violent Opposition From Mediocre Minds.

Your Ancestors Dragged These Black People From Their Homes By Force; And In The White Man's Quest For Wealth And An Easy Life They Have Been Ruthlessly Suppressed And Exploited, Degraded Into Slavery. The Modern Prejudice Against Negroes Is The Result Of The Desire To Maintain This Unworthy Condition.

When The Solution Is Simple, God Is Answering.

A Knowledge Of The Existence Of Something We Cannot Penetrate, Of The Manifestations Of The Profoundest Reason And The Most Radiant Beauty - It Is This Knowledge And This Emotion That Constitute The Truly Religious Attitude; In This Sense, And In This Alone, I Am A Deeply Religious Man.

Imagination Is More Important Than Knowledge.

It Is The Theory That Decides What Can Be Observed.

All Means Prove But Blunt Instruments, If They Have Not Behind Them A Living Spirit.

I See In Nature A Magnificent Structure... That Must Fill A Thinking Person With A Feeling Of Humility.

Joy And Amazement Of The Beauty And Grandeur Of This World Of Which Man Can Just Form A Faint Notion.

My Position Concerning God Is That Of An Agnostic.

Reward And Punishment

Life Is A Great Tapestry. The Individual Is Only An Insignificant Thread In An Immense And Miraculous Pattern.

E=mc2. Energy Equals Mass Times The Speed Of Light Squared

I Love Humanity But I Hate Humans

We Are All Life Trying To Live, Among Other Life Trying To Live.

Just Because You Believe In Something Does Not Mean That It Is True.

A Country Cannot Simultaneously Prepare And Prevent War.

Einstein Didn't Speak Until He Was Four, Leading Most Of His Teachers To Believe He Was Crazy. That Is Until He Whipped Out The Theory Of Relativity. Bayum! Showed You Guys.

It Is The Supreme Art Of The Teacher To Awaken Joy In Creative Expression And Knowledge.

Some Men Spend A Lifetime In An Attempt To Comprehend The Complexities Of Women. Others Pre-occupy Themselves With Somewhat Simpler Tasks, Such As Understanding The Theory Of Relativity!

I Am Not An Atheist. I Do Not Know If I Can Define Myself As A Pantheist. The Problem Involved Is Too Vast For Our Limited Minds.

Man Can Find Meaning In Life Only Through Devoting Himself To Society.

Meaning Of Life

We Believe That An Informed Citizenry Will Act For Life And Not For Death.

Be A Loner. That Gives You Time To Wonder.

Everything Has Changed Except The Way Man Thinks (when The Hydrogen Bomb Was Exploded)

If You Want To Make Your Children Brilliant, Tell Them Fairy Tales. If You Want To Make Them More Brilliant, Tell Them More Fairy Tales.

Private Capitalists Inevitably Control, Directly Or Indirectly, The Main Sources Of Information. It Is Thus Extremely Difficult, And Indeed In Most Cases Quite Impossible, For The Individual Citizen To Come To Objective Conclusions And To Make Intelligent Use Of His Political Rights.

Knowledge Is Limited.

I Am A Stronger Follower Of Veganism By Principle, Not Just Because Of Moral And Aesthetic Reasons. I Truly Believe In A Vegetarian Lifestyle And I Have Faith And Hopes In Change In Human Destiny, Thanks To The Physical Effects And Benefits Of A Healthier Diet And Its Influence On The Character Of The People. It Will Bring About Some Benefit And Improvement To Human Society.

A Perfection Of Means, And Confusion Of Aims, Seems To Be Our Main Problem.

The Equation For Ego Is: One Over Knowledge.

Matter Is Spirit Reduced To Point Of Visibility.

Common Sense Is The Collection Of Prejudices Acquired By Age Eighteen.

That Deep Emotional Conviction Of The Presence Of A Superior Reasoning Power, Which Is Revealed In The Incomprehensible Universe, Forms My Idea Of God.

I Have Never Belonged Wholeheartedly To Country Or State, To My Circle Of Friends Or Even To My Own Family... Such Isolation Is Sometimes Bitter, But I Do Not Regret Being Cut Off From The Understanding And Sympathy Of Other Men. I Lose Something By It,to Be Sure, But I Am Compensated For It In Being Rendered Independent Of The Customs, Opinions And Prejudices Of Others, And Am Not Tempted To Rest My Peace Of Mind Upon Such Shifting Foundations.

Do Not Grow Old, No Matter How Long You Live. Never Cease To Stand Like Curious Children Before The Great Mystery Into Which We Were Born.

It Is Also A Natural Thing For A Serious Young Man That He Should Form For Himself As Precise An Idea As Possible Of The Goal Of His Desires.

It Is Just As Important To Make Knowledge Live And Keep It Alive As To Solve Specific Problems.

A Model Should Be As Simple As It Can Be But No Simpler

Teaching Should Be Such That What Is Offered Is Perceived As A Valuable Gift And Not As A Hard Duty.

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.

Applying The Axioms Of Physical Science To Human Life Has Something Reprehensible To It.

Physical Science

Mankind Must Give Up War In The Atomic Era. What Is At Stake Is The Life Or Death Of Humanity.

Bureaucracy Is The Death Of All Sound Work.

Government Bureaucracy

Nor Do I Take Into Account A Danger Of Starting A Chain Reaction Of A Scope Great Enough To Destroy Part Or All Of The Planet...but It Is Not Necessary To Imagine The Earth Being Destroyed Like A Nova By A Stellar Explosion To Understand Vividly The Grow Ing Scope Of Atomic War And To Recognize That Unless Another War Is Prevented It Is Likely To Bring Destruction On A Scale Never Before Held Possible, And Even Now Hardly Conceived, And That Little Civilization Would Survive It.

Out Of The Multitude Of Our Sense Experiences We Take, Mentally And Arbitrarily, Certain Repeatedly Occurring Complexes Of Sense Impression (partly In Conjunction With Sense Impressions Which Are Interpreted As Signs For Sense Experiences Of Others), And We Attribute To Them A Meaning The Meaning Of The Bodily Object.

The Religious Geniuses Of All Ages Have Been Distinguished By This Kind Of Religious Feeling, Which Knows No Dogma And No God Conceived In Man's Image; So That There Can Be No Church Whose Central Teachings Are Based On It. Hence It Is Precisely Among The Heretics Of Every Age That We Find Men Who Were Filled With This Highest Kind Of Religious Feeling And Were In Many Cases Regarded By Their Contemporaries As Atheists, Sometimes Also As Saints. Looked At In This Light, Men Like Democritus, Francis Of Assisi, And Spinoza Are Closely Akin To One Another.

Innovation Is Everyones Responsibility, Not Just R&ds.

If I Could Do It All Again, I'd Be A Plumber.

More The Knowledge Lesser The Ego, Lesser The Knowledge, More The Ego.

We Scientists, Whose Tragic Destination Has Been To Help In Making The Methods Of Annihilation More Gruesome And More Effective, Must Consider It Our Solemn And Transcendent Duty To Do All In Our Power In Preventing These Weapons From Being Used For The Brutal Purpose For Which They Were Invented.

The Cult Of Individual Personalities Is Always, In My View, Unjustified. To Be Sure, Nature Distributes Her Gifts Variously Among Her Children. But There Are Plenty Of The Well-endowed Ones Too, Thank God, And I Am Firmly Convinced That Most Of Them Live Quiet, Unregarded Lives.

I Fully Agree With You About The Significance And Educational Value Of As Well As History And Philosophy Of Science. So Many People Today - And Even Professional - Seem To Me Like Someone Who Has Seen Thousands Of Trees But Has Never Seen A Forest. A Knowledge Of The Historic And Philosophical Background Gives That Kind Of Independence From Prejudices Of His Generation From Which Most Scientists Are Suffering. This Independence Created By Philosophical Insight Is - In My Opinion - The Mark Of Distinction Between A Mere Artisan Or Specialist And A Real Seeker After Truth.

Only World Law Can Assure Progress Towards A Civilized Peaceful Community.

We Must Recognize What In Our Accepted Tradition Is Damaging To Our Fate And Dignity-and Shape Our Lives Accordingly.

I Think We Have To Safeguard Ourselves Against People Who Are A Menace To Others, Quite Apart From What May Have Motivated Their Deeds.

As Soon As Science Has Emerged From Its Initial Stages, Theoretical Advances Are No Longer Achieved Merely By A Process Of Arrangement. Guided By Empirical Data, The Investigator Rather Develops A System Of Thought Which, In General, Is Built Up Logically From A Small Number Of Fundamental Assumptions, The So-called Axioms. We Call Such A System Of Thought A Theory. The Theory Finds The Justification For Its Existence In The Fact That It Correlates A Large Number Of Single Observations, And It Is Just Here That The 'truth' Of The Theory Lies.

Reason Is Intuition's Servant.

When Men Are Engaged In War And Conquest, The Tools Of Science Become As Dangerous As A Razor In The Hands Of A Child Of Three. We Must Not Condemn Man Because His Inventiveness And Patient Conquest Of The Forces Of Nature Are Being Exploited For False And Destructive Purposes. Rather, We Should Remember That The Fate Of Mankind Hinges Entirely Upon Man’s Moral Development.

No One Does Anything Right In Life, Until They Realize That They Are Making A Mistake

Making Mistakes

The Release Of Atomic Energy Has Not Created A New Problem. It Has Merely Made More Urgent The Necessity Of Solving An Existing One.

The Theoretical Idea ... Does Not Arise Apart From And Independent Of Experience; Nor Can It Be Derived From Experience By A Purely Logical Procedure. It Is Produced By A Creative Act. Once A Theoretical Idea Has Been Acquired, One Does Well To Hold Fast To It Until It Leads To An Untenable Conclusion.

The Only Sure Way To Avoid Making Mistakes Is To Have No New Ideas.

I Didn't Arrive At My Understanding Of The Fundamental Laws Of The Universe Through My Rational Mind.

To Sense That Behind Anything That Can Be Experienced There Is A Something That Our Mind Cannot Grasp And Whose Beauty And Sublimity Reaches Us Only Indirectly And As A Feeble Reflection, This Is Religiousness. In This Sense I Am Religious.

A Problem Defined, Is A Problem Half Solved.

The Word 'god' Is For Me Nothing More Than The Expression And Product Of Human Weaknesses, And Religious Scripture A Collection Of Honourable, But Still Primitive Legends Which Are Nevertheless Pretty Childish. No Interpretation, No Matter How Subtle, Can (for Me) Change This.

Only The [catholic] Church Stood Squarely Across The Path Of Hitler’s Campaign For Suppressing Truth. I Never Had Any Special Interest In The Church Before, But Now I Feel A Great Affection And Admiration Because The Church Alone Has Had The Courage And Persistence To Stand For Intellectual Truth And Moral Freedom. I Am Forced Thus To Confess That What I Once Despised I Now Praise Unreservedly.

With All My Heart I Believe That The World's Present System Of Sovereign Nations Can Only Lead To Barbarism, War And Inhumanity, And That Only World Law Can Assure Progress Towards A Civilized Peaceful Community.

Everyone Knew It Was Impossible, Until A Fool Who Didn't Know Came Along And Did It.

The Satisfaction Of Physical Needs Is Indeed The Indispensable Pre-condition Of A Satisfactory Existence, But In Itself It Is Not Enough. In Order To Be Content, Men Must Also Have The Possibility Of Developing Their Intellectual And Artistic Powers To Whatever Extent Accords With Their Personal Characteristics And Abilities.

There Is Separation Of Colored People From White People In The United States. That Separation Is Not A Disease Of Colored People. It Is A Disease Of White People. I Do Not Intend To Be Quiet About It.

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.

Matter Is Energy ... Energy Is Light ... We Are All Light Beings

All Our Thoughts And Concepts Are Called Up By Sense-experiences And Have A Meaning Only In Reference To These Sense-experiences. On The Other Hand, However, They Are Products Of The Spontaneous Activity Of Our Minds; They Are Thus In No Wise Logical Consequences Of The Contents Of These Sense-experiences. If, Therefore, We Wish To Grasp The Essence Of A Complex Of Abstract Notions We Must For The One Part Investigate The Mutual Relationships Between The Concepts And The Assertions Made About Them; For The Other, We Must Investigate How They Are Related To The Experiences.

What Is The Meaning Of Human Life, Or Of Organic Life Altogether? To Answer This Question At All Implies A Religion.

A Theory Is The More Impressive The Greater The Simplicity Of Its Premises Is, The More Different Kinds Of Things It Relates, And The More Extended Is Its Area Of Applicability. Therefore The Deep Impression Which Classical Thermodynamics Made Upon Me. It Is The Only Physical Theory Of Universal Content Concerning Which I Am Convinced That Within The Framework Of The Applicability Of Its Basic Concepts, It Will Never Be Overthrown.

A Person Starts To Live When He Can Live Outside Himself.

The Unleashed Power Of The Atom Has Changed Everything Save Our Modes Of Thinking And We Thus Drift Toward Unparalleled Catastrophe.

Happiness, As A Pursuit, Is Suitable Only For Pigs.

If The Believers Of The Present-day Religions Would Earnestly Try To Think And Act In The Spirit Of The Founders Of These Religions Then No Hostility On The Basis Of Religion Would Exist Among The Followers Of The Different Faiths. Even The Conflicts And The Realm Of Religion Would Be Exposed As Insignificant.

To Raise New Questions, New Possibilities, To Regard Old Problems From A New Angle, Requires Creative Imagination And Marks Real Advance In Science.

The More One Chases The Quanta, The Better They Hide Themselves.

Although I Am A Typical Loner In My Daily Life, My Awareness Of Belonging To The Invisible Community Of Those Who Strive For Truth, Beauty, And Justice Has Prevented Me From Feelings Of Isolation.

[mystery] Is The Fundamental Emotion That Stands At The Cradle Of True Art And True Science.

Opening Your Mind

Since That Deluge Of Newspaper Articles I Have Been So Flooded With Questions, Invitations, Suggestions, That I Keep Dreaming I Am Roasting In Hell, And The Mailman Is The Devil Eternally Yelling At Me, Showering Me With More Bundles Of Letters At My Head Because I Have Not Answered The Old Ones.

The Discovery Of Nuclear Reactions Need Not Bring About The Destruction Of Mankind Any More Than The Discovery Of Matches.

Everything That Is Really Great And Inspiring Is Created By The Individual Who Can Labor In Freedom.

My Primary Process Of Perceiving Is Muscular And Visual.

A Religious Person Is Devout In The Sense That He Has No Doubt About The Significance Of Those Superpersonal Objects And Goals Which Neither Require Nor Are Capable Of Rational Foundation

Combinatory Play Seems To Be The Essential Feature In Productive Thought.

Imagination Is More Valuable Than Information.

The Idle Man Does Not Know What It Is To Enjoy Rest.

Dr. Einstein: Yes; But This Year The Answers Are Different.

Where You See Difficulty, I See Opportunity.

I Prefer To Make Up My Own Quotes And Attribute Them To Very Smart People, So That I Can Use Them To Win Arguments

Scarcely Anyone Who Comprehends This Theory Can Escape Its Magic.

Life Is A Preparation For The Future; And The Best Preparation For The Future Is To Live As If There Were None.

The Heart Says Yes, But The Mind Says No.

Compounding Is The 8th Wonder Of The World.

Wonder Of The World

The Gift Of Fantasy Has Meant More To Me Than My Talent For Absorbing Positive Knowledge.

The Led Must Not Be Compelled; They Must Be Able To Choose Their Own Leader.

The Payment Of The Worker Is Not Determined By The Value Of His Product.

I Have No Special Talent. I Am Only Passionately Curious. The Important Thing Is To Not Stop Questioning. Curiousity Has Its Own Reason For Existing.

The State Idea Is Not According To My Heart. I Cannot Understand Why It Is Needed. It Is Connected With Narrow-minded And Economic Obstacles. I Believe It Is Bad. I Have Always Been Against It.

We [jews] Have No Other Means Of Self-defense Than Our Solidarity

I Am A Deeply Religious Nonbeliever - This Is A Somewhat New Kind Of Religion.

In Order To Be An Immaculate Member Of A Flock Of Sheep, One Must Above All Be A Sheep Oneself.

The Bible Is A Great Source Of Wisdom And Consolation And Should Be Read Frequently.

We Cannot Solve Our Problems With The Same Thinking We Used When We Created Them.

One Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

My Scientific Work Is Motivated By An Irresistible Longing To Understand The Secrets Of Nature And By No Other Feeling. My Love For Justice And Striving To Contribute Towards The Improvement Of Human Conditions Are Quite Independent From My Scientific Interests.

If God Has Created The World, His Primary Worry Was Certainly Not To Make Its Understanding Easy For Us

The State Exists For Man, Not Man For The State. The Same May Be Said Of Science. These Are Old Phrases, Coined By People Who Saw In Human Individuality The Highest Human Value. I Would Hesitate To Repeat Them, Were It Not For The Ever Recurring Danger That They May Be Forgotten, Especially In These Days Of Organization And Stereotypes.

The Difference Between Stupidity And Genius Is That Genius Has Its Limits.

In Every True Searcher Of Nature There Is A Kind Of Religious Reverence, For He Finds It Impossible To Imagine That He Is The First To Have Thought Out The Exceedingly Delicate Threads That Connect His Perceptions

Every Kind Of Peaceful Cooperation Among Men Is Primarily Based On Mutual Trust And Only Secondarily On Institutions Such As Courts Of Justice And Police.

I Was Originally Supposed To Become An Engineer But The Thought Of Having To Expend My Creative Energy On Things That Make Practical Everyday Life Even More Refined, With A Loathsome Capital Gain As The Goal, Was Unbearable To Me.

I Came To America Because Of The Great, Great Freedom Which I Heard Existed In This Country. I Made A Mistake In Selecting America As A Land Of Freedom, A Mistake I Cannot Repair In The Balance Of My Lifetime.

The Really Valuable Method Of Thought To Arrive At A Logically Coherent System Is Intuition.

May The Conscience And The Common Sense Of The Peoples Be Awakened, So That We May Reach A New Stage In The Life Of Nations, Where People Will Look Back On War As An Incomprehensible Aberration Of Their Forefathers!

Science Is A Wonderful Thing If One Does Not Have To Earn One's Living At It.

Don't Become A Seeker Of Success. Become A Person Of Value.

The Economic Anarchy Of Capitalist Society As It Exists Today Is, In My Opinion, The Real Source Of Evil.

It Is The Duty Of Every Citizen According To His Best Capacities To Give Validity To His Convictions In Political Affairs.

It Followed From The Special Theory Of Relativity That Mass And Energy Are Both But Different Manifestations Of The Same Thing - A Somewhat Unfamiliar Conception For The Average Mind. Furthermore, The Equation E = Mc², In Which Energy Is Put Equal To Mass, Multiplied By The Square Of The Velocity Of Light, Showed That Very Small Amounts Of Mass May Be Converted Into A Very Large Amount Of Energy And Vice Versa.

Most Mistakes In Philosophy And Logic Occur Because The Human Mind Is Apt To Take The Symbol For The Reality.

Real Sign Of Intelligence Isn't Knoweldge, It's Imagination

The Only Reason For Time Is So That Everything Doesn't Happen At Once.

There Are Two Ways To Live: You Can Live As If Nothing Is A Miracle; You Can Live As If Everything Is A Miracle.

I Think That Only Daring Speculation Can Lead Us Further And Not Accumulation Of Facts.

When U Knw Ur Limits U Go Byond Them

You Can't Resolve A Dilemma With All The Very Same Mind That Made It

Realising The Healthy International Relations Can Be Created Only Among Populations Made Up Of Individuals Who Themselves Are Healthy And Enjoy A Measure A Independence, The United Nations Elaborated A Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, Which Was Adopted By The U.n. General Assembly On December 10, 1948.

I Want To Know The Thoughts Of God. Everything Else Is Just Details.

The Most Powerful Force In The World Is Compound Interest.

It Is Easier To Denature Plutonium Than To Denature The Evil Spirit Of Man.

An Expert Is A Person Who Has Few New Ideas; A Beginner Is A Person With Many.

For Me The Jewish Religion Like All Others Is An Incarnation Of The Most Childish Superstitions, And The Jewish People To Whom I Gladly Belong And With Whose Mentality I Have A Deep Affinity Have No Different Quality For Me Than All Other People. As Far As My Experience Goes, They Are No Better Than Other Human Groups, Although They Are Protected From The Worst Cancers By A Lack Of Power. Otherwise I Cannot See Anything Chosen About Them.

To Me It Is Enough To Wonder At The Secrets

My Intellectual Development Was Retarded, As A Result Of Which I Began To Wonder About Space And Time Only When I Had Already Grown Up.

I Have Become An Obstinate Heretic In The Eyes Of My Colleagues. Momentary Success Carries More Power Of Conviction Than Reflections Upon Principles.

To Invent Something, All You Need Is Imagination And A Big Pile Of Junk.

Everyday Is An Oportunity To Make A New Happy Ending.

It Is High Time The Ideal Of Success Should Be Replaced With The Ideal Of Service.

When I Think Of The Most Able Students I Have Encountered In My Teaching - I Mean Those Who Have Distinguished Themselves Not Only By Skill But By Independence Of Thought - Then I Must Confess That All Have Had A Lively Interest In Epistemology.

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.

The Effort To Strive For Truth Has To Precede All Other Efforts.

The Laws Of Gravity Cannot Be Held Responcible For People Falling In Love.

Falling In Love

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?

A Great Thought Begins By Seeing Something Differently, With A Shift Of The Mind's Eye.

When You Trip Over Love, It Is Easy To Get Up. But When You Fall In Love, It Is Impossible To Stand Again.

If I Had Known They Were Going To Do This, I Would Have Become A Shoemaker.

Only A Life Lived For Others Is A Life Worthwhile.

Out Of Complexity, Find Simplicity!

Ever Since Childhood I Have Scorned The Commonplace Limits So Often Set Upon Human Ambition. 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 Both For The Body And The Mind

The Fact That Man Produces A Concept "i" Besides The Totality Of His Mental And Emotional Experiences Or Perceptions Does Not Prove That There Must Be Any Specific Existence Behind Such A Concept. We Are Succumbing To Illusions Produced By Our Self-created Language, Without Reaching A Better Understanding Of Anything. Most Of So-called Philosophy Is Due To This Kind Of Fallacy.

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