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The Words Of Language, As They Are Written Or Spoken, Do Not Seem To Play Any Role In My Mechanism Of Thought. The Physical Entities Which Seem To Serve As Elements In Thought Are Certain Signs And More Or Less Clear Images.

-Albert Einstein

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The Words Of Language,

Albert Einstein

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The Words Of Language, As They Are Written Or Spoken, Do Not Seem To Play Any Role In My Mechanism Of Thought. The Physical Entities Which Seem To Serve As Elements In Thought Are Certain Signs And More Or Less Clear Images.

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More From Albert Einstein

The Devil Has Put A Penalty On All Things We Enjoy In Life. Either We Suffer In Our Health, Or We Suffer In Our Soul, Or We Get Fat.

I'm No More Intelligent Than The Next Guy. I'm Just More Curious.

The Truth Of A Theory Is In Your Mind, Not In Your Eyes.

Logic Can Take You From Point A To Point B. Imagination Can Take You Wherever You Want

A Man Has To Work So Hard So That Something Of His Personality Stays Alive. A Tomcat Has It So Easy, He Has Only To Spray And His Presence Is There For Years On Rainy Days.

God Always Takes The Simplest Way.

I Live In That Solitude Which Is Painful In Youth, But Delicious In The Years Of Maturity.

Even The Scholars In Various Lands Have Been Acting As If Their Brains Had Been Amputated.

The World We Have Made Is A Result Of The Level Of Thinking We Have Done Thus Far.

Common Sense Needs Constant Reappraisal.

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

Money Only Appeals To Selfishness And Always Tempts Its Owners Irresistibly To Abuse It. Can Anyone Imagine Moses, Jesus, Or Gandhi Armed With The Money-bags Of Carnegie?

To Understand The World One Must Not Be Worrying About One's Self.

I Urge A Willingness To Reserve A Place In Rational Science For Non-rational Wonder.

Capitalism Has Brought With It Progress, Not Merely In Production But Also In Knowledge.

My Sailing System Set Sail, Make It Fast, No Thoughts Of Energy Or Velocity, Loll Back, Let Boat Drift.

A Theory Can Be Proved By Experiment; But No Path Leads From Experiment To The Birth Of A Theory.

If One Day You Have To Choose Between The World And Love, Remember This: If You Choose The World You’ll Be Left Without Love, But If You Choose Love, With It You Will Conquer The World

Conquer The World

If You've Never Failed, You've Never Tried Anything New.

Short Inspirational Life

A Mathematical Equation Stands Forever.

Mathematical Equations

War Cannot Be Humanized. It Can Only Be Abolished.

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.

It Was The Experience Of Mystery - Even If Mixed With Fear - That Engendered Religion.

This Change In The Conception Of Reality Is The Most Profound And The Most Fruitful That Physics Has Experienced Since The Time Of Newton. Refering To James Clerk Maxwell's Contributions To Physics.

Imagination Is The Highest Form Of Research.

The Wonder Of Nature Does Not Become Smaller Because One Cannot Measure It By The Standards Of Human Moral And Human Aims.

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 Am Convinced That Some Political And Social Activities And Practices Of The Catholic Organizations Are Detrimental And Even Dangerous For The Community As A Whole, Here And Everywhere. I Mention Here Only The Fight Against Birth Control At A Time When Overpopulation In Various Countries Has Become A Serious Threat To The Health Of People And A Grave Obstacle To Any Attempt To Organize Peace On This Planet.

The Strength Of The Constitution Lies Entirely In The Determination Of Each Citizen To Defend It. Only If Every Single Citizen Feels Duty Bound To Do His Share In This Defense Are The Constitutional Rights Secure.

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

Non-comprehenders Are Often Distressed. Not You, Though-because With Good Humor You're Blessed. After All, Your Thoughts Went Like This, I Dare Say: It Was None But The Lord Who Made Us That Way.

I Cannot Then Believe In This Concept Of An Anthropomorphic God Who Has The Powers Of Interfering With These Natural Laws. As I Said Before, The Most Beautiful And Most Profound Religious Emotion That We Can Experience Is The Sensation Of The Mystical. And This Mysticality Is The Power Of All True Science.

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.

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

One Should Never Impose One's Views On A Problem; One Should Rather Study It, And In Time A Solution Will Reveal Itself.

Creative Solutions

Women Always Worry About Things That Men Forget; Men Always Worry About Things Women Remember.

Nobody Knows How The Stand Of Our Knowledge About The Atom Would Be Without Him. Personally, [niels] Bohr Is One Of The Amiable Colleagues I Have Met. He Utters His Opinions Like One Perpetually Groping And Never Like One Who Believes Himself To Be In Possession Of The Truth.

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

Organized People Are Just Too Lazy To Go Looking For What They Want.

I Must Be Willing To Give Up What I Am In Order To Become What I Will Be.

I Asked Myself Childish Questions And Proceeded To Answer Them.

Insofar As We May At All Claim That Slavery Has Been Abolished Today, We Owe Its Abolition To The Practical Consequences Of Science

I Do Not Believe In Free Will. Schopenhauer's Words: 'man Can Do What He Wants, But He Cannot Will What He Wills,' Accompany Me In All Situations Throughout My Life And Reconcile Me With The Actions Of Others, Even If They Are Rather Painful To Me. This Awareness Of The Lack Of Free Will Keeps Me From Taking Myself And My Fellow Men Too Seriously As Acting And Deciding Individuals, And From Losing My Temper.

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.

I Do Not Believe That A Man Should Be Restrained In His Daily Actions By Being Afraid Of Punishment After Death Or That He Should Do Things Only Because In This Way He Will Be Rewarded After He Dies. This Does Not Make Sense. The Proper Guidance During The Life Of A Man Should Be The Weight That He Puts Upon Ethics And The Amount Of Consideration That He Has For Others.

A Thousand Things Can Prove Me Right And One Can Prove Me Wrong.

If One Tries To Navigate Unknown Waters One Runs The Risk Of Shipwreck

If You Want To Know The Future, Look At The Past.

The Discovery Of Nuclear Chain Reactions Need Not Bring About The Destruction Of Mankind Any More Than Did The Discovery Of Matches. We Only Must Do Everything In Our Power To Safeguard Against Its Abuse. Only A Supranational Organization, Equipped With A Sufficiently Strong Executive Power, Can Protect Us.

The Bitter And The Sweet Come From The Outside, The Hard From Within, From One's Own Efforts.

We Cannot Resolve The Problems Of The World By Unsing The Same Techniques That Have Created Them.

The Truth Of A Theory Can Never Be Proven, For One Never Knows If Future Experience Will Contradict Its Conclusions.

The Distinction Between The Past, Present And Future Is Only A Stubbornly Persistent Illusion.

Intelligence And Genius

Thought Provoking

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

Each Possession I Own Is But A Stone Around My Neck.

Understanding Physics Is Child's Play When Compared To Understanding Child's Play.

Time Is Relative; Its Only Worth Depends Upon What We Do As It Is Passing.

When I Examine Myself And My Methods Of Thought, I Come To The Conclusion That The Gift Of Fantasy Has Meant More To Me Than My Talent For Absorbing Positive Knowledge. (reading This Makes Me Wonder How Much Sooner Man Could Have Walked On The Moon... Had We Listened To A Child's Fantasies. It Is Truly A Pity That So Many Lose Their Gift Of Imagination To The Steady Hum Of The Status Quo.)

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

I Agree With Schopenhauer That One Of The Most Powerful Motives That Attracts People To Science And Art Is The Longing To Escape From Everyday Life.

I No Longer Believed In The Known God Of The Bible, But Rather In The Mysterious God Expressed In Nature.

Imagination Is More Valuable Than Information.

Science Can Only State What Is, Not What Should Be.

O, Youth: Do You Know That Yours Is Not The First Generation To Yearn For A Life Full Of Beauty And Freedom?

Who Would Have Thought Around 1900 That In Fifty Years Time We Would Know So Much More And Understand So Much Less.

Imagination Is Greater Than Knowledge.

Selection [of Un Delegates] By Governments Cannot Give The Peoples Of The World The Feeling Of Being Fairly And Proportionately Represented. The Moral Authority Of The Un Would Be Considerable Enhanced If The Delegates Were Elected Directly By The People. Were They Responsible To An Electorate, They Would Have Much More Freedom To Follow Their Consciences.

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.

The Problems That Exist In This World Can Not Be Solved By The Level Of Thinking That Created Them.

One Thing I Have Learned In A Long Life: That All Our Science, Measured Against Reality, Is Primitive And Childlike -- And Yet It Is The Most Precious Thing We Have.

Watch The Stars, And From Them Learn.

To One Bent On Age, Death Will Come As A Release. I Feel This Quite Strongly Now That I Have Grown Old Myself And Have Come To Regard Death Like An Old Debt, At Long Last To Be Discharged.

I Should Much Rather See A Reasonable Agreement With Arabs Based Upon Living Together Than The Creation Of A Jewish State.

All That Is Valuable In Human Society Depends Upon The Opportunity For Development Accorded The Individual.

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

The Most Practical Solution Is A Good Theory.

I Should Much Rather See Reasonable Agreement With The Arabs On The Basis Of Living Together In Peace Than The Creation Of A Jewish State. My Awareness Of The Essential Nature Of Judaism Resists The Idea Of A Jewish State With Borders, An Army, And A Measure Of Temporal Power, No Matter How Modest. I Am Afraid Of The Inner Damage Judaism Will Sustain—especially From The Development Of A Narrow Nationalism Within Our Own Ranks, Against Which We Have Already Had To Fight Strongly, Even Without A Jewish State.

The True Sign Of Intelligence Is Not Knowledge But Imagination.

On The Other Hand, Although I Have A Regular Work Schedule, I Take Time To Go For Long Walks On The Beach So That I Can Listen To What Is Going On Inside My Head. If My Work Isn't Going Well, I Lie Down In The Middle Of A Workday And Gaze At The Ceiling While I Listen And Visualize What Goes On In My Imagination.

The Only Thing That You Absolutely Have To Know, Is The Location Of The Library.

When You Are Courting A Nice Girl An Hour Seems Like A Second. When You Sit On A Red-hot Cinder A Second Seems Like An Hour. That's Relativity.

No Problem Can Be Solved From The Same Level Of Consciousness That Created It.

Student Is Not A Container You Have To Fill But A Torch You Have To Light Up.

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

Knowledge And Ego Are Directly Related. The Less Knowledge, The Greater The Ego

To Be Free Means To Be Independent, Not To Be Influenced By What Others Think And Say.

Only The Catholic Church Protested Against The Hitlerian Onslaught On Liberty. Up Till Then I Had Not Been Interested In The Church, But Today I Feel A Great Admiration For The Church, Which Alone Has Had The Courage To Struggle For Spiritual Truth And Moral Liberty

A Problem Defined, Is A Problem Half Solved.

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

How I Wish That Somewhere There Existed An Island For Those Who Are Wise And Of Good Will.

War Seems To Me To Be A Mean, Contemptible Thing: I Would Rather Be Hacked In Pieces Than Take Part In Such An Abominable Business. And Yet So High, In Spite Of Everything, Is My Opinion Of The Human Race That I Believe This Bogey Would Have Disappeared Long Ago, Had The Sound Sense Of The Nations Not Been Systematically Corrupted By Commercial And Political Interests Acting Through The Schools And The Press

You Never Fail Until You Stop Trying.

Don't Listen To The Person Who Has The Answers; Listen To The Person Who Has The Questions.

Lasting Harmony With A Woman (was) An Undertaking In Which I Twice Failed Rather Disgracefully.

The Belief In An External World Independent Of The Perceiving Subject Is The Basis Of All Natural Science. Since, However, Sense Perception Only Gives Information Of This External World Or Of "physical Reality" Indirectly, We Can Only Grasp The Latter By Speculative Means. It Follows From This That Our Notions Of Physical Reality Can Never Be Final. We Must Always Be Ready To Change These Notions - That Is To Say, The Axiomatic Basis Of Physics - In Order To Do Justice To Perceived Facts In The Most Perfect Way.

Every Thoughtful, Well-meaning And Conscientious Human Being Should Assume In Time Of Peace, The Solemn And Unconditional Obligation Not To Participate In Any War, For Any Reason Or To Lend Support Of Any Kind, Whether Direct Or Indirect.

Man Would Indeeded Be In A Poor Way If He Had To Be Restrained By Fear Of Punishment And Hope Of Reward After Death.

For Every One Billion Particles Of Antimatter There Were One Billion And One Particles Of Matter. And When The Mutual Annihilation Was Complete, One Billionth Remained - And That's Our Present Universe.

Mere Unbelief In A Personal God Is No Philosophy At All.

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

Unless The Cause Of Peace Based On Law Gathers Behind It The Force And Zeal Of A Religion, It Hardly Can Hope To Succeed.

One Should Guard Against Preaching To Young People Success In The Customary Form As The Main Aim In Life. The Most Important Motive For Work In School And In Life Is Pleasure In Work, Pleasure In Its Result, And The Knowledge Of The Value Of The Result To The Community.

Congratulations

Our Task Must Be To Free Ourselves By Widening Our Circle Of Compassion To Embrace All Living Creatures And The Whole Of Nature And Its Beauty.

The Question That Drives Me Hazy Is Whether It Is I Or Others Who Is Crazy.

It Is Best, It Seems To Me, To Separate One's Inner Striving From One's Trade As Far As Possible. It Is Not Good When One's Daily Break Is Tied To God's Special Blessing.

Coincidences Are God's Way Of Staying Anonymous.

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

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

People Start Their Lives At Last When They Are Able To Live For Something Other Than Themselves.

The Scientist's Religious Feeling Takes The Form Of A Rapturous Amazement At The Harmony Of Natural Law, Which Reveals An Intelligence Of Such Superiority That, Compared With It, All The Systematic Thinking And Acting Of Human Beings Is Utterly Insignificant Reflection. This Feeling Is The Guiding Principle Of His Life And Work, In So Far As He Succeeds In Keeping Himself From The Shackles Of Selfish Desire. It Is Beyond Question Closely Akin To That Which Has Possessed The Religious Geniuses Of All Ages.

The Sceptic Will Say, 'it May Well Be True That This System Of Equations Is Reasonable From A Logical Standpoint, But This Does Not Prove That It Corresponds To Nature.' You Are Right, Dear Sceptic. Experience Alone Can Decide On Truth.

I Know Little About Nature And Hardly Anything About Men.

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.

Learn From Yesterday, Live For Today, Hope For Tomorrow. The Important Thing Is Not To Stop Questioning.

One Should Respect An Honest Person Even If He Expresses Opinions Differing From One's Own.

The Most Beautiful Experience In The World Is The Experience Of The Mysterious.

Our Lives Will Be Measured By What We Do For Others

Each Ray Of Light Moves In The Coordinate System 'at Rest' With The Definite, Constant Velocity V Independent Of Whether This Ray Of Light Is Emitted By A Body At Rest Or A Body In Motion.

I Always Found I Was In The Best Of Company, Alone.

In Conclusion I Wish To Say That In Working At The Problem Here Dealt With I Have Had The Loyal Assistance Of My Friend And Colleague M. Besso, And That I Am Indebted To Him For Several Valuable Suggestions.

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

Although I Tried To Be Universal In Thought, I Am European By Instinct And Inclination.

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

You Believe In A God Who Plays Dice, I In Complete Law And Order.

It Is Strange To Be Known So Universally And Yet To Be So Lonely.

The Nuremberg Trial Of The German War Criminals Was Tacitly Based On The Recognition Of The Principle: Criminal Actions Cannot Be Excused If Committed On Government Orders; Conscience Supersedes The Authority Of The Law Of The State.

I Would Teach Peace Rather Than War, Love Rather Than Hate.

I Take It To Be True That Pure Thought Can Grasp The Real, As The Ancients Had Dreamed.

It Occurred To Me By Intuition, And Music Was The Driving Force Behind That Intuition. My Discovery Was The Result Of Musical Perception.

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.

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.

Creative Energy Is More Critical Than Learning.

During The Last Century, And Part Of The One Before, It Was Widely Held That There Was An Unreconcilable Conflict Between Knowledge And Belief. The Opinion Prevailed Amoung Advanced Minds That It Was Time That Belief Should Be Replaced Increasingly By Knowledge; Belief That Did Not Itself Rest On Knowledge Was Superstition, And As Such Had To Be Opposed. According To This Conception, The Sole Function Of Education Was To Open The Way To Thinking And Knowing, And The School, As The Outstanding Organ For The People's Education, Must Serve That End Exclusively.

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

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

Inspirational Love

What Physics Looks For: The Simplest Possible System Of Thought Which Will Bind Together The Observed Facts.

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.

Try Not To Become A Man Of Success, But A Man Of Value. Look Around At How People Want To Get More Out Of Life Than They Put In. A Man Of Value Will Give More Than He Receives. Be Creative, But Make Sure That What You Create Is Not A Curse For Mankind.

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

He Who Finds Though That Lets Us Penetrate Even A Little Deeper Into The Eternal Mystery Of Nature Has Been Granted Great Grace. He Who, In Addition, Experiences The Recognition, Sympathy, And Help Of The Best Minds Of His Times, Had Been Given Almost More Happiness Than One Man Can Bear.

Everything That Exists In Your Life, Does So Because Of Two Things: Something You Did Or Something You Didn't Do.

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

Love Is A Better Teacher Than Duty.

Although I Cannot Believe That The Individual Survives The Death Of His Body, Feeble Souls Harbor Such Thought Through Fear Or Ridiculous Egotism.

You Believe In A God That Plays Dice; I Believe In Law & Order.

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?

Is It Not Better For A Man To Die For A Cause In Which He Believes, Such As Peace, Than To Suffer For A Cause In Which He Does Not Believe, Such As War?

As To Science, We May Well Define It For Our Purpose As "methodical Thinking Directed Toward Finding Regulative Connections Between Our Sensual Experiences".

The Work On Satisfactory Formulation Of Technical Patents Was A True Blessing For Me. It Compelled Me To Be Many-sided In Thought, And Also Offered Important Stimulation For Thought About Physics. Following A Practical Profession Is A Blessing For People Of My Type. Because The Academic Career Puts A Young Person In A Sort Of Compulsory Situation To Produce Scientific Papers In Impressive Quantity, A Temptation To Superficiality Arises That Only Strong Characters Are Able To Resist.

I Believe That A Simple And Unassuming Manner Of Life Is Best For Everyone, Best Both For The Body And The Mind.

The Years Of Searching In The Dark For A Truth That One Feels But Cannot Express, The Intense Desire And The Alternations Of Confidence And Misgiving Until One Breaks Through To Clarity And Understanding, Are Known Only To Him Who Has Experienced Them Himself.

The Health Of Society Thus Depends Quite As Much On The Independence Of The Individuals Composing It As On Their Close Political Cohesion.

Learn From Yesterday, Live For Today.

Laws Alone Can Not Secure Freedom Of Expression; In Order That Every Man Present His Views Without Penalty There Must Be Spirit Of Tolerance In The Entire Population.

Mathematics Are Well And Good But Nature Keeps Dragging Us Around By The Nose.

Anti-semitism Is Nothing But The Antagonistic Attitude Produced In The Non-jew By The Jewish Group. This Is A Normal Social Reaction. The Jewish Group Has Thrived On Oppression And On The Antagonism It Has Forever Met In The World... The Root Cause Is Their Use Of Enemies They Create In Order To Keep Solidarity.

Well, I Have Considered Myself To Be Very Fortunate In That I Have Been Able To Do Mostly Only That Which My Inner Self Told Me To Do... I Am Also Aware That I Do Receive Much Criticism From The Outside World For What I Do And Some People Actually Get Angry At Me. But This Does Not Really Touch Me Because I Feel That These People Do Not Live In He Same World As Do I.

My Interest In Science Was Always Essentially Limited To The Study Of Principles.... That I Have Published So Little Is Due To This Same Circumstance, As The Great Need To Grasp Principles Has Caused Me To Spend Most Of My Time On Fruitless Pursuits.

... One Does People The Best Service By Giving Them Some Elevating Work To Do And Thus Indirectly Elevating Them.

I Like To Experience The Universe As One Harmonious Whole. Every Cell Has Life. Matter, Too, Has Life; It Is Energy Solidified. Our Bodies Are Like Prisons, And I Look Forward To Be Free, But I Don't Speculate On What Will Happen To Me. I Live Here Now, And My Responsibility Is In This World Now.

The Mathematician Knows Some Things, No Doubt, But Not Those Things One Usually Wants To Get From Him.

Even On The Most Solemn Occasions I Got Away Without Wearing Socks And Hid That Lack Of Civilization In High Boots

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.

While I Am A Convinced Pacifist There Are Circumstances In Which I Believe The Use Of Force Is Appropriate - Namely, In The Face Of An Enemy Unconditionally Bent On Destroying Me And My People.

I Do Not Believe In The God Of Theology Who Rewards Good And Punishes Evil.

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

Small Is The Number Of Them That See With Their Own Eyes And Feel With Their Own Hearts.

That A Man Can Take Pleasure In Marching In Formation To The Strains Of A Band Is Enough To Make Me Despise Him. He Has Only Been Given His Big Brain By Mistake; A Backbone Was All He Needed.

I Have Yet To Figure Out Whether It Is I Am That Am Crazy, Or The World.

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 Only Way To Escape The Personal Corruption Of Praise Is To Go On Working. One Is Tempted To Stop And Listen To It. The Only Thing Is To Turn Away And Go On Working. Work. There Is Nothing Else.

I Believe In Spinoza's God, Who Reveals Himself In The Lawful Harmony Of The World, Not In A God Who Concerns Himself With The Fate And The Doings Of Mankind... To Rabbi Herbert Goldstein (1929)

I Have Made No Secret, Either Privately Or Publicly, Of Any Sense Of Outrage Over Officially Enforced Military And War Service. I Regard It As A Duty Of Conscience To Fight Against Such Barbarous Enslavement Of The Individual With Every Means Available.

What You Can't Imagine, You Can't Discover.

Whatever Your Problems In Math Are, I Assure Mine Are Greater.

I Want To Know What God Thinks. The Rest Are Details.

All Meaningful And Lasting Change Starts First In Your Imagination And Then Works Its Way Out. Imagination Is More Important Than Knowledge.

I Have Second Thoughts. Maybe God Is Malicious. Told To Valentine Bargmann.

Second Thoughts

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

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

I Was Sitting In A Chair In The Patent Office At Bern When All Of A Sudden A Thought Occurred To Me: "if A Person Falls Freely He Will Not Feel His Own Weight." I Was Startled. This Simple Thought Made A Deep Impression On Me. It Impelled Me Toward A Theory Of Gravitation.

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.

What Counts Can't Always Be Counted; What Can Be Counted Doesn't Always Count.

Even If You Have To Go Through Hell - Go Without Hesitation.

"one Becomes A Deeply Religious Nonbeliever...". It Is Clear From The Original That It Is Definitely Not "i".

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.

Compounding Is The 8th Wonder Of The World.

Wonder Of The World

I Have Never Belonged Wholeheartedly To A Country, A State, Nor To A Circle Of Friends, Nor Even To My Own Family. When I Was Still A Rather Precocious Young Man, I Already Realized Most Vividly The Futility Of The Hopes And Aspirations That Most Men Pursue Throughout Their Lives. 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.

Without Deep Reflection One Knows From Daily Life That One Exists For Other People.

The Concept Of Marriage Must Have Been Thought Up By An Unimaginative Pig.

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.

Formerly, People Thought That If Matter Disappeared From The Universe, Space And Time Would Remain. Relativity Declares That Space And Time Would Disappear With Matter.

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

Compassionate People Are Geniuses In The Art Of Living, More Necessary To The Dignity, Security, And Joy Of Humanity Than The Discoverers Of Knowledge.

Discussion And Argument Are Essential Parts Of Science; The Greatest Talent Is The Ability To Strip A Theory Until The Simple Basic Idea Emerges With Clarity.

There Are Few Enough People With Sufficient Independence To See The Weaknesses And Follies Of Their Contemporaries And Remain Themselves Untouched By Them.

What I Seek To Accomplish Is Simply To Serve With My Feeble Capacity Truth And Justice, At The Risk Of Pleasing No One.

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.

Weak People Revenge. Strong People Forgive. Intelligent People Ignore.

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