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It Seems To Me That The Idea Of A Personal God Is An Anthropological Concept Which I Cannot Take Seriously. I Feel Also Not Able To Imagine Some Will Or Goal Outside The Human Sphere. My Views Are Near Those Of Spinoza: Admiration For The Beauty Of And Belief In The Logical Simplicity Of The Order Which We Can Grasp Humbly And Only Imperfectly. I Believe That We Have To Content Ourselves With Our Imperfect Knowledge And Understanding And Treat Values And Moral Obligations As A Purely Human Problem-the Most Important Of All Human Problems.

-Albert Einstein

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It Seems To Me

Albert Einstein

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It Seems To Me That The Idea Of A Personal God Is An Anthropological Concept Which I Cannot Take Seriously. I Feel Also Not Able To Imagine Some Will Or Goal Outside The Human Sphere. My Views Are Near Those Of Spinoza: Admiration For The Beauty Of And Belief In The Logical Simplicity Of The Order Which We Can Grasp Humbly And Only Imperfectly. I Believe That We Have To Content Ourselves With Our Imperfect Knowledge And Understanding And Treat Values And Moral Obligations As A Purely Human Problem-the Most Important Of All Human Problems.

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I Am Not A Jew In The Sense That I Would Demand The Preservation Of The Jewish Or Any Other Nationality As An End In Itself. Rather, I See Jewish Nationality As A Fact And I Believe That Every Jew Must Draw The Consequences From This Fact.

It Is Abhorrent To Me When A Fine Intelligence Is Paired With An Unsavory Character.

How Can Cosmic Religious Feeling Be Communicated From One Person To Another, If It Can Give Rise To No Definite Notion Of A God And No Theology? In My View, It Is The Most Important Function Of Art And Science To Awaken This Feeling And Keep It Alive In Those Who Are Receptive To It.

Common Sense Invents And Constructs No Less Than Its Own Field Than Science Does In Its Domain. It Is, However, In The Nature Of Common Sense Not To Be Aware Of This Situation.

The Dog Is Very Smart. He Feels Sorry For Me Because I Receive So Much Mail; That's Why He Tries To Bite The Mailman.

Conceptions Without Experience Are Void; Experience Without Conceptions Is Blind.

The Only Source Of Knowledge Is Experience.

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

Am I, Or The Others Crazy?

Of All The Communities Available To Us, There Is Not One I Would Want To Devote Myself To Except For The Society Of The True Seekers, Which Has Very Few Living Members At Any One Time.

How Can He Possibly Be Humble? He Hasn't Done Anything Yet.

It May Affront The Military-minded Person To Suggest A Regime That Does Not Maintain Any Military Secrets.

I Shall Never Believe That God Plays Dice With The World.

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.

But There Is Another Reason For The High Repute Of Mathematics: It Is Mathematics That Offers The Exact Natural Sciences A Certain Measure Of Security Which, Without Mathematics, They Could Not Attain.

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.

Your Fervent Wishes Can Only Find Fulfillment If You Succeed In Attaining Love And Understanding Of Men, And Animals, And Plants, And Stars, So That Every Joy Becomes Your Joy And Every Pain Your Pain.

If The Facts Don't Fit The Theory, Change The Facts.

There Is A Driving Force More Powerful Than Steam, Electricity And Nuclear Power: The Will.

Everything Has Changed, Except Our Way Of Thinking.

Nonviolent Communication

Raffiniert Ist Der Herr Gott, Aber Boshaft Ist Er Nicht. God Is Subtle, But He Is Not Malicious.

I Am A Jew, But I Am Enthralled By The Luminous Figure Of The Nazarene. Jesus Is Too Colossal For The Pen Of Phrasemongers, However Artful." He Further Added: "no Man Can Read The Gospels Without Feeling The Actual Presence Of Jesus. His Personality Pulsates In Every Word. No Myth Is Filled With Such Life...theseus And Other Heroes Of His Type Lack The Authentic Vitality Of Jesus.

Even Trivial Events Demonstrate Strong Devotion To The Universe And Small Concern For Ego.

The Facts, Although Interesting, Are Irrelevant.

The Grand Aim Of All Science Is To Cover The Greatest Number Of Empirical Facts By Logical Deduction From The Smallest Number Of Hypotheses Or Axioms.

If You Do The Same Thing Over And Over Again You Cannot Ever Expect A Different Outcome.

It Is A Very Grave Mistake To Think That The Enjoyment Of Seeing And Searching Can Be Promoted By Means Of Coercion And A Sense Of Duty. To The Contrary, I Believe It Would Be Possible To Rob Even A Healthy Beast Of Prey Of Its Voraciousness, If It Were Possible, With The Aid Of A Whip, To Force The Beast To Devour Continuously, Even When Not Hungry.

Imagination Is More Valuable Than Information.

Whether Or Not You Can Observe A Thing Depends Upon The Theory You Use. It Is The Theory Which Decides What Can Be Observed.

The Basic Laws Of The Universe Are Simple, But Because Our Senses Are Limited, We Can’t Grasp Them. There Is A Pattern In Creation.

It Is Impossible To Get Out Of A Problem By Using The Same Kind Of Thinking That It Took To Get Into It.

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.

What I'm Really Interested In Is Whether God Could Have Made The World In A Different Way; That Is, Whether The Necessity Of Logical Simplicity Leaves Any Freedom At All.

Yes, We Now Have To Divide Up Our Time Like That, Between 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.

I Wish To Do Something Great And Wonderful, But I Must Start By Doing The Little Things Like They Were Great And Wonderful

Any Fool Can Know. The Point Is To Understand.

The Idea Of A Being Who Interferes With The Sequence Of Events In The World Is Absolutely Impossible

There Is, Fortunately, A Minority Composed Of Those Who Recognize Early In Their Lives That The Most Beautiful And Satisfying Experiences Open To Humankind Are Not Derived From The Outside, But Are Bound Up With The Development Of The Individual's Own Feeling, Thinking And Acting. The Genuine Artists, Investigators And Thinkers Have Always Been Persons Of This Kind. However Inconspicuously The Life Of These Individuals Runs Its Course, None The Less The Fruits Of Their Endeavors Are The Most Valuable Contributions Which One Generation Can Make To Its Successors.

Time Flies When You Are Having Fun.

Everyone Has Two Choices. We're Either Full Of Love... Or Full Of Fear.

Inspirational Love

The Most Important Question A Person Can Ask Is, "is The Universe A Friendly Place?

Creating A New Theory Is Not Like Destroying An Old Barn And Erecting A Skyscraper In Its Place. It Is Rather Like Climbing A Mountain And Gaining New And Wider Views.

Condemnation Without Investigation Is The Height Of Ignorance

The Pursuit Of Knowledge For Its Own Sake, An Almost Fanatical Love Of Justice And The Desire For Personal Independence -- These Are The Features Of The Jewish Tradition Which Make Me Thank My Stars That I Belong To It.

Jewish Tradition

Solitude Is Painful When One Is Young, But Delightful When One Is More Mature.

Once You Can Accept The Universe As Matter Expanding Into Nothing That Is Something, Wearing Stripes With Plaid Comes Easy.

For Me The Jewish Religion Like All Other Religions Is An Incarnation Of The Most Childish Superstitions.

If You Want To Find Out Anything From The Theoretical Physicists About The Methods They Use, I Advise You To Stick Closely To One Principle: Don't Listen To Their Words, Fix Your Attention On Their Deeds. To Him Who Is A Discoverer In This Field The Products Of His Imagination Appear So Necessary And Natural That He Regards Them, And Would Like To Have Them Regarded By Others, Not As Creations Of Thought But As Given Realities.

If My Theory Of Relativity Is Proven Successful, Germany Will Claim Me As A German And France Will Declare Me A Citizen Of The World. Should My Theory Prove Untrue, France Will Say That I Am A German, And Germany Will Declare That I Am A Jew.

What I See In Nature Is A Magnificent Structure That We Can Comprehend Only Very Imperfectly, And That Must Fill A Thinking Person With A Feeling Of Humility. This Is A Genuinely Religious Feeling That Has Nothing To Do With Mysticism.

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.

If One Asks The Whence Derives The Authority Of Fundamental Ends, Since They Cannot Be Stated And Justified Merely By Reason, One Can Only Answer: They Exist In A Healthy Society As Powerful Traditions, Which Act Upon The Conduct And Aspirations And Judgments Of The Individuals; They Are There, That Is, As Something Living, Without Its Being Necessary To Find Justification For Their Existence.

The Only Thing We Can Be Certain Of In This Life Is That We Can Be Certain Of Nothing.

It Seems To Me That The Idea Of A Personal God Is An Anthropological Concept Which I Cannot Take Seriously. I Also Cannot Imagine Some Will Or Goal Outside The Human Sphere... Science Has Been Charged With Undermining Morality, But The Charge Is Unjust. A Man's Ethical Behavior Should Be Based Effectually On Sympathy, Education, And Social Ties And Needs; No Religious Basis Is Necessary. Man Would Indeed Be In A Poor Way If He Had To Be Restrained By Fear Of Punishment And Hope Of Reward After Death.

You Cannot Simultaneously Prevent And Prepare For War.

Bear In Mind That The Wonderful Things You Learn In Your Schools Are The Work Of Many Generations. All This Is Put In Your Hands As Your Inheritance In Order That You May Receive It, Honor It, Add To It, And One Day Faithfully Hand It On To Your Children.

To Dwell On The Things That Depress Or Anger Us Does Not Help In Overcoming Them. One Must Knock Them Down Alone.

Many Of The Things You Can Count, Don't Count. Many Of The Things You Can't Count, Really Count.

Great Spirits Have Always Found Violent Opposition From Mediocre Minds. The Latter Cannot Understand It When A Man Does Not Thoughtlessly Submit To Hereditary Prejudices But Honestly And Courageously Uses His Intelligence.

One Must Take What Nature Gives As One Finds It.

If The Bee Disappeared Off The Surface Of The Globe, Then Man Would Have Only Four Years Of Life Left. No More Bees, No More Pollination, No More Plants, No More Animals, No More Man.

Insanity: Doing The Same Thing Over And Over Again And Expecting Different Results.

Make Everything As Simple As Possible, But Not Simpler.

My Only Genius Talent Is Inquisitiveness.

I Love To Travel, But Hate To Arrive.

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

Nothing Happens Til Something Moves.

The Equation For Ego Is: One Over Knowledge.

Only The One Who Does Not Question Is Safe From Making A Mistake.

Making Mistakes

Out Yonder There Was This Huge World...which Stands Before Us Like A Great Eternal Riddle.

If A Man Aspires Towards A Righteous Life, His First Act Of Abstinence Is From Injury To Animals.

The World We Have Made As A Result Of The Level Of Thinking We Have Done Thus Far Creates Problems That We Cannot Solve At The Same Level At Which We Have Created Them.... We Shall Require A Substantially New Manner Of Thinking If Humankind Is To Survive.

You Can't Solve Problems With The Same Thinking That Caused Them.

Mere Thinking Cannot Reveal To Us The Highest Purpose.

You Imagine That I Look Back On My Life's Work With Calm Satisfaction. But From Nearby It Looks Quite Different. There Is Not A Single Concept Of Which I Am Convinced That It Will Stand Firm, And I Feel Uncertain Whether I Am In General On The Right Track.

Knowledge Exists In Two Forms - Lifeless, Stored In Books, And Alive, In The Consciousness Of Men. The Second Form Of Existence Is After All The Essential One; The First, Indispensable As It May Be, Occupies Only An Inferior Position.

Inner Freedom Is An Infrequent Gift Of Nature And A Worthy Object For The Individual.

Adversity Introduces A Man To Himself.

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.

Opening Your Mind

But The Creative Principle Resides In Mathematics. In A Certain Sense, Therefore, I Hold True That Pure Thought Can Grasp Reality, As The Ancients Dreamed.

If The Rabble Continues To Occupy Itself With You, Then Simply Don't Read That Hogwash, But Rather Leave It For The Reptile From Whom It Has Been Fabricated.

Science Is The Process Of Making Obviously Erroneous Ideas Less Obviously Erroneous.

Warfare Cannot Be Humanized.

The Right To Search For Truth Implies Also A Duty.

Search For Truth

It Is Impossible To Get Anywhere Without Sinning Against Reason.

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.

I Have Come To Know The Mutability Of All Human Relationships And Have Learned To Insulate Myself Against Both Heat And Cold So That A Temperature Balance Is Fairly Well Assured.

Brief Is This Existence, As A Visit In A Strange House. The Path To Be Pursued Is Poorly Lit By A Flickering Consciousness.

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.

Nothing Truly Valuable Arises From Ambition Or From A Mere Sense Of Duty; It Stems Rather From Love And Devotion Towards Men And Towards Objective Things.

Everyone Must Become Their Own Person, However Frightful That May Be.

The Mind Can Proceed Only So Far Upon What It Knows And Can Prove. There Comes A Point Where The Mind Takes A Higher Plane Of Knowledge, But Can Never Prove How It Got There. All Great Discoveries Have Involved Such A Leap

In Their Struggle For The Ethical Good, Teachers Of Religion Must Have The Stature To Give Up The Doctrine Of A Personal God.

This Has Been Done Elegantly By Minkowski; But Chalk Is Cheaper Than Grey Matter, And We Will Do It As It Comes.

From The Standpoint Of Daily Life, However, There Is One Thing We Do Know: That We Are Here For The Sake Of Each Other.

Genius Is 1% Talent And 99% Percent Hard Work.

Concepts Which Have Proved Useful For Ordering Things Easily Assume So Great An Authority Over Us, That We Forget Their Terrestrial Origin And Accept Them As Unalterable Facts. They Then Become Labeled As 'conceptual Necessities,' Etc. The Road Of Scientific Progress Is Frequently Blocked For Long Periods By Such Errors.

The Important Thing Is To Never Stop Questioning. Never Lose A Holy Curiosity.

Learning Is Experience. Everything Else Is Just Information.

The State Is Made For Mankind, Not Mankind For The State

My Success Wasn't So Much Due To Intelligence, But The Fact That I Stuck With Problems Longer.

What Is Essential In The Life Of A Man Of My Kind Is What He Thinks And How He Thinks, And Not What He Does Or Suffers.

The World Needs Heroes And It's Better They Be Harmless Men Like Me Than Villains Like Hitler

The World Will Not Be Destroyed By Those Who Do Evil, But By Those Who Watch Them Without Doing Anything.

My Primary Process Of Perceiving Is Muscular And Visual.

A Bartender Is Just A Pharmacist With A Limited Inventory.

One Should Not Pursue Goals That Are Easily Achieved. One Must Develop An Instinct For What One Can Just Barely Achieve Through One’s Greatest Efforts.

Hope That Justice Will Be Done To Those Brave Men Who Stood Up For Their Convictions.

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.

How Many People Are Trapped In Their Everyday Habits: Part Numb, Part Frightened, Part Indifferent? To Have A Better Life We Must Keep Choosing How We Are Living.

Jesus Is Too Colossal For The Pen Of Phrasemongers, However Artful. No Man Can Dispose Of Christianity With A Bon Mot

From A Certain Temperature On, The Molecules 'condense' Without Attractive Forces; That Is, They Accumulate At Zero Velocity. The Theory Is Pretty, But Is There Some Truth In It.

Nothing Happens Until Something Moves. When Something Vibrates, The Electrons Of The Entire Universe Resonate With It. Everything Is Connected.

It Is My Inner Conviction That The Development Of Science Seeks In The Main To Satisfy The Longing For Pure Knowledge.

Knowledge Is Power

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.

I Could Say Analogously That Tolerance Is The Affable Appreciation Of Qualities, Views, And Actions Of Other Individuals Which Are Foreign To One`s Own Habits, Beliefs, And Tastes. Thus Being Tolerant Does Not Mean Being Indifferent Towards The Actions And Feelings Of Others. Understanding And Empathy Must Also Be Present.

In My View, It Is The Most Important Function Of Art And Science To Awaken This Feeling And Keep It Alive In Those Who Are Capable Of It.

Everyday Is An Oportunity To Make A New Happy Ending.

The Consequence Was A Positively Fanatic [orgy Of] Freethinking Coupled With The Impression That Youth Is Being Deceived By The State Through Lies; It Was A Crushing Impression

I Have Made The Bhagwad Gita As The Main Source Of My Inspiration And Guide For The Purpose Of Scientific Investigations And Formation Of My Theories.

Racism Is America's Greatest Disease, Racism Is A Disease Of The White Man.

If I Had My Life To Live Over Again, I Would Elect To Be A Trader Of Goods Rather Than A Student Of Science. I Think Barter Is A Noble Thing.

We All Try To Escape Pain And Death, While We Seek What Is Pleasant.

A Country Cannot Simultaneously Prepare And Prevent War.

The Great Need To Grasp Principles Had Caused Me To Spend Most Of My Time On Fruitless Persuits.

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.

Thus I Came...to A Deep Religiosity, Which, However, Reached An Abrupt End At The Age Of 12. Through The Reading Of Popular Scientific Books I Soon Reached A Conviction That Much In The Stories Of The Bible Could Not Be True....suspicion Against Every Kind Of Authority Grew Out Of This Experience...an Attitude Which Has Never Left Me.

I Cannot Conceive Of A Personal God Who Would Directly Influence The Actions Of Individuals, Or Would Directly Sit In Judgment On Creatures Of His Own Creation. I Cannot Do This In Spite Of The Fact That Mechanistic Causality Has, To A Certain Extent, Been Placed In Doubt By Modern Science. My Religiosity Consists In A Humble Admiration Of The Infinitely Superior Spirit That Reveals Itself In The Little That We, With Our Weak And Transitory Understanding, Can Comprehend Of Reality. Morality Is Of The Highest Importance - But For Us, Not For God.

Unless Americans Come To Realize That They Are Not Stronger In The World Because They Have The Bomb But Weaker Because Of Their Vulnerability To Atomic Attack, They Are Not Likely To Conduct Their Policy At Lake Success [the United Nations] Or In Their Relations With Russia In A Spirit That Furthers The Arrival At An Understanding.

The Release Of Atomic 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. (1945)

That Little Word 'we' I Mistrust And Here's Why: No Man Of Another Can Say, 'he Is I.' Behind All Agreement Lies Something Amiss All Seeming Accord Cloaks A Lurking Abyss.

For The Most Part We Humans Live With The False Impression Of Security And A Feeling Of Being At Home In A Seemingly Familiar And Trustworthily Physical And Human Environment. But When The Expected Course Of Everyday Life Is Interrupted, We Realize That We Are Like Shipwrecked People Trying To Keep Their Balance On A Miserable Plank In The Open Sea, Having Forgotten Where They Came From And Not Knowing Whether They Are Drifting. But Once We Fully Accept This, Life Becomes Easier And There Is No Longer Any Disappointment.

My God May Not Be Your Idea Of God, But One Thing I Know Of My God He Makes Me A Humanitarian. I Am A Proud Jew Because We Gave The World The Bible And The Story Of Joseph.

I'm Not A Genius. I'm Just Passionately Curious.

The Essentials Of Being A Person Of My Type Lies Precisely In What They Think And How They Think, Not In What They Do. Your Thoughts Shape You.

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

The Solution To This Problem Lies In The Heart Of Mankind.

We Must Dedicate Our Lives To Drying Up The Source Of War: Ammunition Factories.

Members Of Legislative Bodies Are Selected By Political Parties, Largely Financed Or Otherwise Influenced By Private Capitalists Who, For All Practical Purposes, Separate The Electorate From The Legislature. The Consequence Is That The Representatives Of The People Do Not In Fact Sufficiently Protect The Interests Of The Underprivileged Sections Of The Population.

A Theory Is The More Impressive The Greater Is The Simplicity Of Its Premises, The More Different Are The Kinds Of Things It Relates And The More Extended The Range Of Its Applicability.

Force Always Attracts Men Of Low Morality, And I Believe It To Be An Invariable Rule That Tyrants Of Genius Are Succeeded By Scoundrels.

It Is Humankind's Duty To Respect All Life, Not Only Animals Have Feelings But Even Also Trees And Plants.

My Scientific Work Is Motivated By An Irresistible Longing To Understand The Secrets Of Nature Not By Other Feelings.

Only Six Men In The World Know About Relativity. I Am Not One Of Them. When I Ask Them To Explain, They Confused Me.

Each Of Us Visits This Earth Involuntarily, And Without An Invitation. For Me, It Is Enough To Wonder At The Secrets.

I Am Happy Because I Want Nothing From Anyone. I Do Not Care For Money. Decorations, Titles Or Distinctions Mean Nothing To Me. I Do Not Crave Praise. The Only Thing That Gives Me Pleasure, Apart From My Work, My Violin And My Sailboat, Is The Appreciation Of My Fellow Workers.

Occurrences In This Domain Are Beyond The Reach Of Exact Prediction Because Of The Variety Of Factors In Operation, Not Because Of Any Lack Of Order In Nature.

The Revolution Introduced Me To Art, And In Turn, Art Introduced Me To The Revolution!

Children Don’t Heed The Life Experiences Of Their Parents, And Nations Ignore History. Bad Lessons Always Have To Be Learned Anew.

Every Day I Remind Myself That My Inner And Outer Life Are Based On The Labors Of Other Men, Living And Dead, And That I Must Exert Myself In Order To Give In The Same Measure As I Have Received And Am Still Receiving.

The Tyranny Of The Ignoramuses Is Insurmountable And Assured For All Time.

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.

The Intuitive Mind Is A Sacred Gift And The Rational Mind Is A Faithful Servant. We Have Created A Society That Honors The Servant And Has Forgotten The Gift. We Will Not Solve The Problems Of The World From The Same Level Of Thinking We Were At When We Created Them. More Than Anything Else, This New Century Demands New Thinking: We Must Change Our Materially Based Analyses Of The World Around Us To Include Broader, More Multidimensional Perspectives.

Faithful Servants

Nationalism, On My Opinion, Is Nothing More Than An Idealistic Rationalization For Militarism And Aggression.

You Might As Well Not Be Alive If You're Not In Awe Of God.

There Is No Greater Satisfaction For A Just And Well-meaning Person Than The Knowledge That He Has Devoted His Best Energies To The Service Of The Good Cause.

The Most Difficult Part About Understanding Something Is That We Understand It All.

Energy Cannot Be Created Or Destroyed, It Can Only Be Changed From One Form To Another.

The Restriction Of Knowledge To An Elite Group Destroys The Spirit Of The Society And Leads To Its Intellectual Impoverishment.

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

Degeneracy Follows Every Autocratic System Of Violence, For Violence Inevitably Attracts Moral Inferiors. Time Has Proven That Illustrious Tyrants Are Succeeded By Scoundrels.

In A Healthy Nation There Is A Kind Of Dramatic Balance Between The Will Of The People And The Government, Which Prevents Its Degeneration Into Tyranny.

America Is A Large Country And Its People Have So Far Not Shown Much Interest In Great International Problems, Among Which The Problem Of Disarmament Occupies First Place Today. This Must Be Changed, If Only In America's Own Interest. The Last War Has Shown That There Are No Longer Any Barriers Between The Continents And That The Destinies Of All Countries Are Closely Interwoven. The People Of This Country Must Realize That They Have A Great Responsibility In The Sphere Of International Politics. The Part Of Passive Spectator Is Unworthy Of This Country And Is Bound In The End To Lead To Disaster All Round.

I Can Understand Your Aversion To The Use Of The Term 'religion' To Describe An Emotional And Psychological Attitude Which Shows Itself Most Clearly In Spinoza... I Have Not Found A Better Expression Than 'religious' For The Trust In The Rational Nature Of Reality That Is, At Least To A Certain Extent, Accessible To Human Reason.

The Years Of Anxious Searching In The Dark, With Their Intense Longing, Their Alternations Of Confidence And Exhaustion And The Final Emergence Into The Light -- Only Those Who Have Experienced It Can Understand It.

Truly Novel Inventions Emerge Only In One's Youth. Later One Becomes Ever More Experienced, Famous-and Foolish.

Relativity Is A Purely Scientific Matter And Has Nothing To Do With Religion.

The Indifference, Callousness And Contempt That So Many People Exhibit Toward Animals Is Evil First Because It Results In Great Suffering In Animals, And Second Because It Results In An Incalculably Great Impoverishment Of The Human Spirit.

Small Is The Number Of People Who See With Their Eyes And Think With Their Minds.

Even Though The Realms Of Religion And Science In Themselves Are Clearly Marked Off From Each Other, Nevertheless There Exist Between The Two Strong Reciprocal Relationships And Dependencies.

Science And Religion

In My Opinion There Is No Other Salvation For Civilization And Even For The Human Race Than The Creation Of A World Government With Security On The Basis Of Law. As Long As There Are Sovereign States With Their Separate Armaments And Armament Secrets, New World Wars Cannot Be Avoided.

World Government

In One's Youth Every Person And Every Event Appear To Be Unique. With Age One Becomes Much More Aware That Similar Events Recur. Later On, One Is Less Often Delighted Or Surprised, But Also Less Disappointed Than In Earlier Years.

Newton Did Not Know What Happened To The Apple, And I Can Prove This When The Next Eclipse Comes.

Women Marry Men Hoping They Will Change. Men Marry Women Hoping They Will Not.

This Is What The Painter, The Poet, The Speculative Philosopher, And The Natural Scientists Do, Each In His Own Fashion.

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.

The Magic Of Compounding Interest Is Truly The Eighth Wonder Of The World!

My Relationship To The Jewish People Has Become My Strongest Human Bond, Ever Since I Became Fully Aware Of Our Precarious Situation Among The Nations Of The World.

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

Not All Things Worth Counting Are Countable And Not All Things That Count Are Worth Counting.

One Always Likes To Do The Things For Which One Has Ability.

I Believe That The Horrifying Deterioration In The Ethical Conduct Of People Today Stems From The Mechanization And Dehumanization Of Our Lives. A Disastrous By-product Of The Development Of The Scientific And Technical Mentality. We Are Guilty. Man Grows Cold Faster Than The Planet He Inhabits.

The Legs Are The Wheels Of Creativity.

By Academic Freedom I Understand The Right To Search For Truth And To Publish And Teach What One Holds To Be True. This Right Also Implies A Duty: One Must Not Conceal Any Part Of What One Has Recognized To Be True.

The Attempt To Combine Wisdom And Power Has Only Rarely Been Successful And Then Only For A Short While.

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

I Have Also Considered Many Scientific Plans During My Pushing You Around In Your Pram!

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

There Are Two Ways Of Resisting War: The Legal Way And The Revolutionary Way. The Legal Way Involves The Offer Of Alternatinve Service Not As A Privilege For A Few But As A Right For All. The Revolutionary View Involves An Uncompromising Resistance, With A View To Breaking The Power Of Militarism In Time Of Peace Or The Resources Of The State In Time Of War.

I Once Thought That If I Could Ask God One Question, I Would Ask How The Universe Began, Because Once I Knew That, All The Rest Is Simply Equations. But As I Got Older I Became Less Concerned With How The Universe Began. Rather, I Would Want To Know Why He Started The Universe. For Once I Knew That Answer, Then I Would Know The Purpose Of My Own Life.

I Am A Jew, But I Am Enthralled By The Luminous Figure Of The Nazarene….no One Can Read The Gospels Without Feeling The Actual Presence Of Jesus.

Every Reminiscence Is Colored By The Way Things Are Today, And Therefore By A Delusive Point Of View.

Why Is It I Always Get My Best Ideas While Shaving?

When You Won't Be Able To Describe It Simply Just, You Don't Are Aware Of It Well Sufficient.

... Knowledge Must Continually Be Renewed By Ceaseless Effort, If It Is Not To Be Lost. It Resembles A Statue Of Marble Which Stands In The Desert And Is Continually Threatened With Burial By The Shifting Sand. The Hands Of Service Must Ever Be At Work, In Order That The Marble Continue To Lastingly Shine In The Sun. To These Serving Hands Mine Shall Also Belong.

Those Who Have The Privilege To Know Have The Duty To Act.

It Is Characteristic Of The Military Mentality That Non-human Factors ... Are Held Essential, While The Human Being, His Desires And Thoughts-in Short, The Psychological Factors-are Considered As Unimportant And Secondary.

...the Physicist Cannot Simply Surrender To The Philosopher The Critical Contemplation Of The Theoretical Foundations; For, He Himself Knows Best, And Feels More Surely Where The Shoe Pinches...physical Conceptions Are Free Creations Of The Human Mind, And Are Not, However It May Seem, Uniquely Determined By The External World.

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

Making Mistakes

Why Is It That No One Understands Me And Everybody Likes Me

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Leonard Peikoff

Miranda Cosgrove

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