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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.'

-Albert Einstein

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Why Does This Magnificent

Albert Einstein

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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.'

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More From Albert Einstein

Never Regard Study As A Duty, But As The Enviable Opportunity To Learn

Opportunities To Learn

I Like The Swiss Because By And Large They Are More Humane Than The Other People Aming Whom I Have Lived.

To Put It Boldly, It Is The Attempt At A Posterior Reconstruction Of Existence By The Process Of Conceptualization.

An Important Advance In The Life Of A People Is The Transformation Of The Religion Of Fear Into The Moral Religion. But One Must Avoid The Prejudice That Regards The Religions Of Primitive Peoples As Pure Fear Religions And Those Of The Civilized Races As Pure Moral Religions. All Are Mixed Forms, Though The Moral Element Predominates In The Higher Levels Of Social Life. Common To All These Types Is The Anthropomorphic Character Of The Idea Of God.

As Our Circle Of Knowledge Expands, So Does The Circumference Of Darkness Surrounding It.

The Armament Industry Is Indeed One Of The Greatest Dangers That Beset Mankind. It Is The Hidden Evil Power.

We Will Never Be Able To Solve The Problems Of Tomorrow With The Thinking Of Today

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 Want To Know All God's Thoughts.

There Are Two Different Conceptions About The Nature Of The Universe: (1) The World As A Unity Dependent On Humanity; (2) The World As A Reality Independent Of The Human Factor.

I Am An Adherent Of The Ideal Of Democracy, Although I Well Know The Weaknesses Of The Democratic Form Of Government. Social Equality And Economic Protection Of The Individual Appeared To Me Always As The Important Communal Aims Of The State. Although I Am A Typical Loner In Daily Life, My Consciousness Of Belonging To The Invisible Community Of Those Who Strive For Truth, Beauty, And Justice Has Preserved Me From Feeling Isolated.

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.

You Can Move Through Life Seeing Nothing As A Miracle, Or Seeing Everything As A Miracle.

School Failed Me, And I Failed The School. It Bored Me. The Teachers Behaved Like Feldwebel (sergeants). I Wanted To Learn What I Wanted To Know, But They Wanted Me To Learn For The Exam. What I Hated Most Was The Competitive System There, And Especially Sports. Because Of This, I Wasn't Worth Anything, And Several Times They Suggested I Leave.

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

One Strength Of The Communist System Of The East Is That It Has Some Of The Character Of A Religion And Inspires The Emotions Of A Religion.

Morality Is Of The Highest Importance - But For Us, Not For God.

I Agree With Your Remark About Loving Your Enemy As Far As Actions Are Concerned. But For Me The Cognitive Basis Is The Trust In An Unrestricted Causality. 'i Cannot Hate Him, Because He Must Do What He Does.' That Means For Me More Spinoza Than The Prophets.

I Have Always Disliked The Fierce Competitive Spirit Embodied In That Highly Intellectual Game.

My Opinion About Miller's Experiments Is The Following. ... Should The Positive Result Be Confirmed, Then The Special Theory Of Relativity And With It The General Theory Of Relativity, In Its Current Form, Would Be Invalid. Experimentum Summus Judex. Only The Equivalence Of Inertia And Gravitation Would Remain, However, They Would Have To Lead To A Significantly Different Theory.

A Human Being Is Part Of A Whole Called By Us The Universe.

Parts Of A Whole

Great Spiritual

The Ideals Which Have Always Shone Before Me And Filled Me With The Joy Of Living Are Goodness, Beauty, And Truth. To Make A Goal Of Comfort Or Happiness Has Never Appealed To Me; A System Of Ethics Built On This Basis Would Be Sufficient Only For A Herd Of Cattle.

Then There Are The Fanatical Atheists Whose Intolerance Is Of The Same Kind As The Intolerance Of The Religious Fanatics And Comes From The Same Source.

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

I Hate All The Loathsome Nonsense That Goes With Patriotism.

There's Something To Be Said For Relatives...it Has To Be Said Because It's Unprintable!

God Doesn't; Shoot Crap With The Universe.your Innermost Thoughts Are Beliefs That Unfold As Your Universe.

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 Definition Of Genius Is Taking The Complex And Making It Simple.

Remember Today, For It Is The Beginning Of Always. Today Marks The Start Of A Brave New Future Filled With All Your Dreams Can Hold. Think Truly To The Future And Make Those Dreams Come True.

Creativity Is Contagious. Pass It On.

Einstein Was Attending A Music Salon In Germany Before The Second World War, With The Violinist S. Suzuki. Two Japanese Women Played A German Piece Of Music And A Woman In The Audience Exclaimed: "how Wonderful! It Sounds So German!" Einstein Responded: "madam, People Are All The Same."

The Illusion That We Are Separate From One Another Is An Optical Delusion Of Our Consciousness.

It Must Be Conceded That A Theory Has An Important Advantage If Its Basic Concepts And Fundamental Hypotheses Are 'close To Experience,' And Greater Confidence In Such A Theory Is Certainly Justified. There Is Less Danger Of Going Completely Astray, Particularly Since It Takes So Much Less Time And Effort To Disprove Such Theories By Experience. Yet More And More, As The Depth Of Our Knowledge Increases, We Must Give Up This Advantage In Our Quest For Logical Simplicity In The Foundations Of Physical Theory.

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

The Real Problem Is In The Hearts And Minds Of Men. It Is Not A Problem Of Physics But Of Ethics. It Is Easier To Denature Plutonium Than To Denature The Evil Spirit Of Man.

The Greatest Knowledge A Person Can Possess Is The Address Of The Local Library.

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.

There Is Only One Road To Human Greatness: Through The School Of Hard Knocks.

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.

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 Am Neither Especially Clever Nor Especially Gifted. I Am Only Very, Very Curious.

Intellectual Growth Should Commence At Birth And Cease Only At Death.

The Secret To Creativity Is Knowing How To Hide Your Sources.

I Have Deep Faith That The Principle Of The Universe Will Be Beautiful And Simple

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

The More A Man Is Imbued With The Ordered Regularity Of All Events The Firmer Becomes His Conviction That There Is No Room Left By The Side Of This Ordered Regularity For Causes Of A Different Nature. For Him Neither The Rule Of Human Nor The Rule Of Divine Will Exist As An Independent Cause Of Natural Events.

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.

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

Convictions Can Best Be Supported With Experience And Clear Thinking.

Without Changing Our Pattern Of Thought, We Will Not Be Able To Solve The Problems We Created With Our Current Patterns Of Thought

The Stupid Are Invincible.

Time And Space Are Modes By Which We Think And Not Conditions In Which We Live.

To Be Sure, The Doctrine Of A Personal God Interfering With Natural Events Could Never Be Refuted, In The Real Sense, By Science, For This Doctrine Can Always Take Refuge In Those Domains In Which Scientific Knowledge Has Not Yet Been Able To Set Foot.

Common Sense Consists Of Those Layers Of Prejudice Laid Down Before The Age Of 18.

It Is My Conviction That Pure Mathematical Construction Enables Us To Discover The Concepts And The Laws Connecting Them, Which Gives Us The Key To The Understanding Of Nature ... In A Certain Sense, Therefore, I Hold It True That Pure Thought Can Grasp Reality, As The Ancients Dreamed.

Mankind Invented The Atomic Bomb, But No Mouse Would Ever Construct A Mousetrap.

The Only Mistake In Life Is The Lesson Not Learned.

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

Anger Dwells Only In The Bosom Of Fools.

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

Hitler Appeared, A Man With Limited Intellectual Abilities And Unfit For Any Useful Work, Bursting With Envy And Bitterness Against All Whom Circumstance And Nature Had Favored Over Him....in His Desperate Ambition For Power He Discovered That His Speeches, Confused And Pervaded With Hate As They Were, Received Wild Acclaim By Those Whose Situation And Orientation Resembled His Own. He Picked Up This Human Flotsam On The Streets And In The Taverns And Organized Them Around Himself. This Is The Way He Launched His Political Career.

Science Is The Century-old Endeavor To Bring Together By Means Of Systematic Thought The Perceptible Phenomena Of This World Into As Thorough-going An Association As Possible.

You Ask Me If I Keep A Notebook To Record My Great Ideas. I've Only Ever Had One.

I Have Become Rather Like King Midas, Except That Everything Turns Not Into Gold But Into A Circus.

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

The Religion Of The Future Will Be A Cosmic Religion. It Should Transcend A Personal God And Avoid Dogmas And Theology. Covering Both The Natural And The Spiritual, It Should Be Based On A Religious Sense Arising From The Experience Of All Things, Natural And Spiritual, As A Meaningful Unity. Buddhism Answers This Description.

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.

The School Has Always Been The Most Important Means Of Transferring The Wealth Of Tradition From One Generation To The Next. This Applies Today In An Even Higher Degree Than In Former Times, For Through Modern Development Of Economic Life, The Family

You Can't Blame Gravity For Falling In Love.

What Is Inconceivable About The Universe Is That It Is At All Conceivable.

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

When The Solution Is Simple, God Is Answering.

It Is The Same With People As It Is With Riding A Bike. Only When Moving Can One Comfortably Maintain One's Balance.

It's Not That I'm So Smart, It's Just That I Stay With Problems Longer.

It Should Be Possible To Explain The Laws Of Physics To A Barmaid.

As Long As There Will Be A Man, There Will Be Wars.

There Are Two Ways To Live: You Can Live As If Nothing Is A Miracle; You Can Live As If Everything Is A Miracle. The Most Beautiful Thing We Can Experience Is The Mysterious. It Is The Source Of All True Art And All Science. He To Whom This Emotion Is A Stranger, Who Can No Longer Pause To Wonder And Stand Rapt Is Awe, Is As Good As Dead: His Eyes Are Closed.

I Am Absolutely Convinced That No Wealth In The World Can Help Humanity Forward, Even In The Hands Of The Most Devoted Worker In This Cause. The Example Of Great And Pure Characters Is The Only Thing That Can Produce Fine Ideas And Noble Deeds. Money Only Appeals To Selfishness And Always Tempts Its Owners Irresistibly To Abuse It

I Feel That You Are Justified In Looking Into The Future With True Assurance, Because You Have A Mode Of Living In Which We Find The Joy Of Life And The Joy Of Work Harmoniously Combined. Added To This Is The Spirit Of Ambition Which Pervades Your Very Being, And Seems To Make The Day's Work Like A Happy Child At Play.

I Prefer An Attitude Of Humility Corresponding To The Weakness Of Our Intellectual Understanding Of Nature And Of Our Own Being.

The Theory Must Not Contradict Empirical Facts.

Imagination Is More Important Than Knowledge.

The Ideals Which Have Always Shone Before Me And Filled Me With The Joy Of Living Are Goodness, Beauty, And Truth.

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.

Compound Interest Is The Eighth Natural Wonder Of The World And The Most Powerful Thing I Have Ever Encountered.

Natural Wonders

I Am Strongly Drawn To The Simple Life And Am Often Oppressed By The Feeling That I Am Engrossing An Unnecessary Amount Of The Labour Of My Fellow Men. I Regard Class Differences As Contrary To Justice And, In The Last Resort, Based On Force. I Also Consider That Plain Living Is Good For Everybody, Physically And Mentally.

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

There Comes A Point In Your Life When You Need To Stop Reading Other People's Books And Write Your Own.

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

Imagination Is Everything. It Is The Preview Of Life's Coming Attractions.

But Science Can Only Be Created By Those Who Are Thoroughly Imbued With The Aspiration Toward Truth And Understanding. This Source Of Feeling, However, Springs From The Sphere Of Religion. To This There Also Belongs The Faith In The Possibility That The Regulations Valid For The World Of Existence Are Rational, That Is, Comprehensible To Reason. I Cannot Conceive Of A Genuine Scientist Without That Profound Faith. The Situation May Be Expressed By An Image: Science Without Religion Is Lame, Religion Without Science Is Blind.

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

Philosophers Play With The Word, Like A Child With A Doll.... It Does Not Mean That Everything In Life Is Relative.

If The Bee Disappeared Off The Face Of The Earth, Man Would Only Have Four Years Left To Live. This Is Regarded As Probably Not A Quote By Einstein.

Relativity Teaches Us The Connection Between The Different Descriptions Of One And The Same Reality.

Failing Isn't Bad When You Learn What Not To Do.

It Is True That The Grasping Of Truth Is Not Possible Without Empirical Basis. However, The Deeper We Penetrate And The More Extensive And Embracing Our Theories Become The Less Empirical Knowledge Is Needed To Determine Those Theories.

Three Rules Of Work: Out Of Clutter Find Simplicity. From Discord Find Harmony. In The Middle Of Difficulty Lies Opportunity.

Everyone Likes Me, Yet Nobody Understands Me.

Nobody Understands Me

The Most Fundamental Question We Can Ever Ask Ourselves Is Whether Or Not The Universe We Live In Is Friendly Or Hostile.

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.

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.

I Consider It Important, Indeed Urgently Necessary, For Intellectual Workers To Get Together, Both To Protect Their Own Economic Status And, Also, Generally Speaking, To Secure Their Influence In The Political Field.

It Is Easy To Say Something New, If All Senses One Will Eschew. But Hardly Ever Is Found, That The New Is Also Sound.

Enough For Me Is The Mystery Of The Eternity Of Life, And The Inkling Of The Marvelous Structure Of Reality. There Is In This Neither A Will Nor A Goal, Nor A Must, But Only Sheer Being.

Eternity Of Life

A True Genius Admits That He/she Knows Nothing.

In The View Of Such Harmony In The Cosmos Which I, With My Limited Human Mind, Am Able To Recognize, There Are Yet People Who Says There Is No God. But What Makes Me Really Angry Is That They Quote Me For Support Of Such Views. (the Expanded Quotable Einstein, Princeton University, Page 214)

Princeton University

The Conscientious Objector Is A Revoultionary. On Deciding To Disobey The Law He Sacrifices His Personal Interests To The Most Important Cause Of Working For The Betterment Of Society.

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

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.

Man's Will, Sustained By An Indominable Conviction, Is Much More Powerful Than Material Forces That Seem Insurmountable.

God Casts The Die, Not The Dice.

It Is Only To The Individual That A Soul Is Given. And The High Destiny Of The Individual Is To Serve Rather Than To Rule, Or To Impose Himself In Any Other Way.

In The Past It Never Occurred To Me That Every Casual Remark Of Mine Would Be Snatched Up And Recorded. Otherwise I Would Have Crept Further Into My Shell.

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.

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

You Cannot Prepare For War And Peace At The Same Time.

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

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

Those Who Staying With The Wrong Reward,(eg. Stay In Comfort Zone, Etc.), Long Enough Will Get Problem.

The World Is A Dangerous Place To Live; Not Because Of The People Who Are Evil, But Because Of The People Who Don't Do Anything About It.

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.

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?

To Me The Worst Thing Seems To Be A School Principally To Work With Methods Of Fear, Force And Artificial Authority. Such Treatment Destroys The Sound Sentiments, The Sincerity And The Self-confidence Of Pupils And Produces A Subservient Subject.

Self Confidence

The State Is Made For Man, Not Man For The State.... That Is To Say, The State Should Be Our Servant And Not We Its Slaves

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

We Know Nothing At All. All Our Knowledge Is But The Knowledge Of Schoolchildren. The Real Nature Of Things We Shall Never Know.

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

What Distinguishes The Language Of Science From Language As We Ordinarily Understand The Word? ... What Science Strives For Is An Utmost Acuteness And Clarity Of Concepts As Regards Their Mutual Relation And Their Correspondence To Sensory Data.

The Step Between Genius And Insanity Is Very Short.

Where You See Difficulty, I See Opportunity.

As I Look Back Over The Truly Crucial Events In My Life I Realize That They Were Not Planned Long In Advance. Albert Einstein Said, 'there Are Only Two Ways To Live Your Life. One Is As Though Nothing Is A Miracle. The Other Is As Though Everything Is.'

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.

If We Knew What It Was We Were Doing, It Would Not Be Called Research, Would It?

Any Fool Can Know. The Point Is To Understand.

Live Life To The Fullest. You Have To Color Outside The Lines Once In A While If You Want To Make Your Life A Masterpiece. Laugh Some Every Day. Keep Growing, Keep Dreaming, Keep Following Your Heart. The Important Thing Is Not To Stop Questioning.

You Believe In The God Who Plays Dice, And I In Complete Law And Order In A World That Objectively Exists, And Which I, In A Wildly Speculative Way, Am Trying To Capture. ... Even The Great Initial Success Of The Quantum Theory Does Not Make Me Believe In The Fundamental Dice-game, Although I Am Well Aware That Our Younger Colleagues Interpret This As A Consequence Of Senility. No Doubt The Day Will Come When We Will See Whose Instinctive Attitude Was The Correct One.

Intelligence And Genius

Thought Provoking

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.

Good Acts Are Like Good Poems. One May Easily Get Their Drift, But They Are Not Rationally Understood.

Those Who Believe That Politics And Religion Do Not Mix, Understand Neither.

Religion And Politics

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.

Just As With The Man In The Fairy Tale Who Turned Whatever He Touched Into Gold, With Me Everything Is Turned Into Newspaper Clamor.

Logic Will Get You From A To B. Imagination Will Take You Everywhere.

About God, I Cannot Accept Any Concept Based On The Authority Of The Church... As Long As I Can Remember. I Have Resented Mass Indoctrination. I Cannot Prove To You There Is No Personal God, But If I Were To Speak Of Him, I Would Be A Liar. I Do Not Believe In The God Of Theology Who Rewards Good And Punishes Evil. His Universe Is Not Ruled By Wishful Thinking, But By Immutable Laws

I Never Said Half The Crap People Said I Did.

Peace Cannot Be Kept By Force; It Can Only Be Achieved By Understanding.

The Important Thing Is Not To Stop Questioning. Curiosity Has Its Own Reason For Existing. One Cannot Help But Be In Awe When He Contemplates The Mysteries Of Eternity, Of Life, Of The Marvelous Structure Of Reality. It Is Enough If One Tries Merely To Comprehend A Little Of This Mystery Every Day. Never Lose A Holy Curiosity.

A Happy Man Is Too Satisfied With The Present To Dwell Too Much On The Future.

The Horizon Of Many People Is A Circle With A Radius Of Zero. They Call This Their Point Of View.

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

One May Say The Eternal Mystery Of The World Is Its Comprehensibility.

The Enormous Mental Resilience, Without Which No Chess Player Can Exist, Was So Much Taken Up By Chess That He Could Never Free His Mind Of This Game

God Reveals Himself In The Orderly Harmony Of What Exists.

Gravity Is A Response To Geometry.

Turkish Soldiers Are Very Brave. They Love Their Homeland And They Do Not Hesitate To Give Their Lives For It If Necessary.

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.

I Am Satisfied With The Mystery Of Life's Eternity And With A Knowledge, A Sense, Of The Marvelous Structure Of Existence - As Well As The Humble Attempt To Understand Even A Tiny Portion Of The Reason That Manifests Itself In Nature.

At The Same Time, As Social Beings, We Are Moved In The Relations With Our Fellow Beings By Such Feelings As Sympathy, Pride, Hate, Need For Power, Pity, And So On.

Imagination Is More Valuable Than Information.

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

A Society's Competitive Advantage Will Come Not From How Well Its Schools Teach The Multiplication And Periodic Tables, But From How Well They Stimulate Imagination And Creativity.

I Cannot Accept Any Concept Of God Based On The Fear Of Life Or The Fear Of Death, Or Blind Faith. I Cannot Prove To You That There Is No Personal God, But If I Were To Speak Of Him I Would Be A Liar.

The One Who Walks Alone, Is Likely To Find Himself In Places No One Has Ever Been.

Being Different

Following The Crowd

Certainly There Are Things Worth Believing. I Believe In The Brotherhood Of Man And The Uniqueness Of The Individual. But If You Ask Me To Prove What I Believe, I Can't. You Know Them To Be True But You Could Spend A Whole Lifetime Without Being Able To Prove Them. The Mind Can Proceed Only So Far Upon What It Knows And Can Prove. There Comes A Point Where The Mind Takes A Leap—call It Intuition Or What You Will—and Comes Out Upon A Higher Plane Of Knowledge, But Can Never Prove How It Got There. All Great Discoveries Have Involved Such A Leap.

The Thinking It Took To Get Us Into This Mess Is Not The Same Thinking That Is Going To Get Us Out Of It.

Man Owes His Strength In The Struggle For Existence To The Fact That He Is A Social Animal.

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

Time Is What The Clock Says.

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.

Life Is Like A Bicycle; Keep Moving On To Maintain Balance.

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.

Let Me Tell You What I Look Like: Pale Face, Long Hair, And A Tiny Start Of A Paunch. In Addition, An Awkward Gait, And A Cigar In The Mouth And A Pen In Pocket Or Hand.

The World Is So Full Of Possibilities That Dogmatism Is Simply Indecent.

Dear Posterity, If You Have Not Become More Just, More Peaceful, And In General More Sensible... Then May The Devil Take You!

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.

One Must Console Oneself With The Thought That Time Has A Sieve Through Which Most Of These Important Things Run Into The Ocean Of Oblivion And What Remains After This Selection Is Often Still Trite And Bad.

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

All That's Different About Me Is That I Still Ask The Questions Most People Stopped Asking At Age Five.

Know Where To Find The Information And How To Use It - That's The Secret Of Success.

One Who Scorns The Power Of Intuition Will Never Rise Above The Ranks Of Journeyman Calculator.

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.'

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.

The Only Source Of Knowledge Is Experience.

In The Middle Of Adversity There Is Great Opportunity.

A Country Cannot Simultaneously Prepare And Prevent War. I Know Not With What Weapons World War Iii Will Be Fought, But World War Iv Will Be Fought With Sticks And Stones. The Distinctions Separating The Social Classes Are False; In The Last Analysis They Rest On Force.

No Worthy Problem Is Ever Solved Within The Plane Of Its Original Conception.

If You Have Never Failed, You Have Never Tried Anything New.

Short Inspirational Life

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

It's Not That I'm So Smart.

I Believe That The First Step In The Setting Of A Real External World Is The Formation Of The Concept Of Bodily Objects And Of Bodily Objects Of Various Kinds.

We Can Invent As Many Theories We Like, And Any One Of Them Can Be Made To Fit The Facts. But That Theory Is Always Preferred Which Makes The Fewest Number Of Assumptions.

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

My Only Genius Talent Is Inquisitiveness.

That Which Is Impenetrable To Us Really Exists. Behind The Secrets Of Nature Remains Something Subtle, Intangible, And Inexplicable. Veneration For This Force Beyond Anything That We Can Comprehend Is My Religion.

What I See In Nature Is A Grand Design That We Can Understand Only Imperfectly, One With Which A Responsible Person Must Look At With Humility.

Common To All These Types Is The Anthropomorphic Character Of Their Conception Of God. In General, Only Individuals Of Exceptional Endowments, And Exceptionally High-minded Communities, Rise To Any Considerable Extent Above This Level. But There Is A Third Stage Of Religious Experience Which Belongs To All Of Them, Even Though It Is Rarely Found In A Pure Form: I Shall Call It Cosmic Religious Feeling. It Is Very Difficult To Elucidate This Feeling To Anyone Who Is Entirely Without It, Especially As There Is No Anthropomorphic Conception Of God Corresponding To It.

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.

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Not Until The Creation And Maintenance Of Decent Conditions Of Life For All Men Are Recognized And Accepted As A Common Obligation Of All Men And All Countries — Not Until Then Shall We, With A Certain Degree Of Justification, Be Able To Speak Of Mankind As Civilized.

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