1.You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else
2.In matters of truth and justice, there is
no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning
the treatment of people are all the same
3.Strive not to be a success,but rather to be of value
4.It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge
5.The only source of knowledge is experience
6.It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity
7.A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new
8.We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them
9.Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better
10.Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning
11.The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination
12.Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results
13.The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits
14.Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters
15. Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former
16.Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves
17.Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character
18.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
19.Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value
20.Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding
21.Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school
22.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
23.Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character
24.The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once
25.Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile
26.Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more
violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move
in the opposite direction.
27. Imagination is more important than knowledge
28. Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.
29. I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details.
30.The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.
31. Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one
32. The only real valuable thing is intuition.
33.A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."
34.I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice.
35.God is subtle but he is not malicious.
36.Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.
37.I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.
38.The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.
39.Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.
40.Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.
41.Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
42.Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."
43.Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
44.Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
45.Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at
it."
46.The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
47.The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
48.God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates
empirically.
49.The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.
50.Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological
criminal.
51.Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
52.The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is
comprehensible.
53.We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we
created them.
54.Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in
school."
55.The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own
reason for existing."
56.Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine
are still greater."
57.Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present,
but an equation is something for eternity."
58.If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z.
Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."
59.Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure
about the the universe."
60.As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as
far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
61.Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge
is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
62.I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV
will be fought with sticks and stones."
63.In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above
all, be a sheep."
64.The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk
of accident for
someone who's dead."
65.Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel
libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves."
66.Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that
goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!
67."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?"
68."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."
69.Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our 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."
70."The release of atom 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."
71.Great spirits have always found violent opposition from
mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not
thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and
courageously uses his intelligence."
72.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 in awe, is as
good as dead: his eyes are closed."
74.A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education,
and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a
poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward
after death."
75.The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it
seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the
fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving
after rational knowledge."
76.Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me.
That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know
that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a
stubbornly persistent illusion.
77.You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his
tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand
this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they
receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."
78.One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the
examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had
such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the
final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific
problems distasteful to me for an entire year."
79.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.
80.He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already
earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake,
since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace
to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at
command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble
war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base
an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war
is nothing but an act of murder.
81.A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ...universe.., a part
limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and
feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical
delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for
us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few
persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this
prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living
creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
82.Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can
be counted counts
83. Why is it that nobody understands me, yet everybody likes me?
84. I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious
85. Only the one who does not question is safe from making a mistake
86. Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom
87. The most beautiful experience we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science
88. Regarding sex education, no secrets!
89. Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it
90. The more success the quantum theory has, the sillier it looks
91. If I were to start taking care of my grooming, I would no longer be my own self.......
92. I think we have to safeguard ourselves against people who are a menace
to others, quite apart from what may have motivated their deeds.
93. I think we have to safeguard ourselves against people who are a menace
to others, quite apart from what may have motivated their deeds.
94. Everything is determined…by forces over which we have no control. It is
determined for the insect as well as for the star. Human beings,
vegetables, or cosmic dust—we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in
the distance by an invisible piper
95. I lived in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity
96. It is not a lack of real affection that scares me away again and again
from marriage. Is it a fear of the comfortable life, of nice furniture,
of dishonor that I burden myself with, or even the fear of becoming a
contented bourgeois
97. It is not a lack of real affection that scares me away again and again
from marriage. Is it a fear of the comfortable life, of nice furniture,
of dishonor that I burden myself with, or even the fear of becoming a
contented bourgeois
98. Strenuous intellectual work and the study of God’s Nature are the angels
that will lead me through all the troubles of this life with
consolation, strength, and uncompromising rigor
99.The aim [of education] must be the training of independently acting and thinking individuals who, however, see in the service to the community their highest life problem.
Enjoying the joys of others and suffering with them—these are the best guides for man.
100.People like you and I, though mortal of course, like everyone else, do not grow old no matter how long we live. What I mean is that we never cease to stand like curious children before the great Mystery into which we were born.
101.I believe that a simple and unassuming life is good for everybody, physically and mentally.”
102.The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self.
103.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.
104.I believe the most important mission of the state is to protect the individual and make it possible for him to develop into a creative personality.............
105.Just as with the man in the fairy tale who turned whatever he touched into gold, with me everything is turned into newspaper clamor.
106.I am truly a ''lone traveler'' and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart. In the face of all this, I have never lost a sense of distance and the need for solitude.
107.Music does not influence research work, but both are nourished by the same sort of longing, and they complement each other in the release they offer.
108.A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.
109.Where there is love, there is no imposition.
110.The monotony of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.”
101.Most teachers waste their time by asking questions that are intended to discover what a pupil does not know, whereas the true art of questioning is to discover what the pupil does know or is capable of knowing.”
102.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
103.“I very rarely think in words at all. A thought comes, and I may try to express in words afterwards.”
104.I am content in my later years. I have kept my good humor and take neither myself nor the next person seriously.”
105.“As an elderly man, I have remained estranged from the society here.”
106.“If there is no price to be paid, it is also not of value.”
107.Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”
108.“I never worry about the future. It comes soon enough.”
109.“Try to become not a man of success, but try rather to become a man of value.”
110.he important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
111.“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….”
112.The most important endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity for life."
113.“Man owes his strength in the struggle for existence to the fact that he is a social animal.”
114.“I am not only a pacifist, but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace…. 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?”
115.“The heart says yes, but the mind says no.”
116.“One becomes a deeply religious nonbeliever…”. It is clear from the original that it is definitely not “I”.
117.“A scientist is a mimosa when he himself has made a mistake, and a roaring lion when he discovers a mistake of others.”
118.He who cherishes the values of culture cannot fail to be a pacifist.”
119.“There is nothing divine about [the scientist’s] morality; it is a purely human affair.”
120.Relativity is a purely scientific matter and has nothing to do with religion.”
121.A forced faithfulness is a bitter fruit for all concerned.”
122.“Mozart’s music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner beauty of the universe.”
123.“Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics; I can assure you that mine are still greater.”
124.124.“The value of achievement lies in the achieving.”
125.“The search for truth and knowledge is one of the finest attributes of man—though often it is most loudly voiced by those who strive for it the least.”
126.“The only way to escape the corruptible effect of praise is to go on working.”
127.“If only I could give you some of my happiness so you would never be sad and depressed again.”
128.“My life is a simple thing that would interest no one. It is a known fact that I was born, and that is all that is necessary.”
129.“(i)must seek in the stars that which was denied [to me] on earth.”
130.“I admit that thoughts influence the body.”
131.“Mysticism is in fact the only criticism people cannot level against my theory.”
132.“It is difficult to say what truth is, but sometimes it is so easy to recognize a falsehood.”
133.“I have always eaten animal flesh with a somewhat guilty conscience.”
134.A life directed chiefly toward the fulfillment of personal desires will sooner or later always lead to bitter disappointment.”
135.“To punish me for my contempt of authority, Fate has made me an authority myself.”
136.“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects.”
137.“Truly novel ideas emerge only in one’s youth. Later on one becomes more experienced, famous—and foolish.”
138.“With fame I become more and more stupid, which of course is a very common phenomenon.”
139.“Violence sometimes may have cleared away obstructions quickly, but it never has proved itself creative”---
140.“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.” Should read: “ … the essential in the being of a man of my type lies precisely in what he thinks and how he thinks, not in what he does or suffers.”
141.“…My scientific goals and my personal vanity will not prevent me from accepting even the most subordinate position.” Should read: “My scientific goals and my personal vanity will not prevent me from accepting even the most subordinate role”.
142.“The creative principle [of science] resides in mathematics.”
143.“The more a country makes military weapons, the more insecure it becomes: if you have weapons, you become a target for attack.”
144.“Whoever is careless with truth in small matters can not be trusted in important affairs.”
145.“Without ‘ethical culture,’ there is no salvation for humanity.”
146.“The economists will have to revise their theories of value.”
147.“I am also convinced that one gains the purest joy from spiritual things only when they are not tied in with earning one’s livelihood.”
148.“Morality is the highest importance—but for us, not for God.
149.“Work is the only thing that gives substance to life.”
150.“I have, for the first time, seen a happy and healthy society whose members are fully absorbed in it.”
151.“Marriage is but slavery made to appear civilized.”
152.“I should very much like to remain in the darkness of not having been analyzed.”
153.“The ability to portray people in still life and in motion requires the highest measure of intuition and talent.”
154.“I have never obtained any ethical values from my scientific work.”
155.“God gave me the stubbornness of a mule and a fairly keen scent.”
156.“Love brings much happiness, much more so than pining for someone brings pain.”
157.“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….”
158.“The content of scientific theory itself offers no moral foundation for the personal conduct of life.”
159.“All my life I have dealt with objective matters; hence I lack both the natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people and to carry out official functions.”
160.“I wouldn’t want to live if I did not have my work…. In any case, it’s good that I’m already old and personally don’t have to count on a prolonged future.”
161.“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.”
162.“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….”
163.“My mother has died…. We are all completely exhausted. One feels in one’s bones the significance of blood ties.”
164.“When a blind beetle crawls over the surface of a curved branch, it doesn’t notice that the track it has covered is indeed curved. I was lucky enough to notice what the beetle didn’t notice.”
165.“I am an artist’s model”
166.“A hundred times a day I remind myself that my inner and outer lives are based on the labors of other people, 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.”
167.“I have not eaten enough of the Tree of Knowledge, though in my profession I am obliged to feed on it regularly.”
168.“Although I tried to be universal in thought, I am European by instinct and inclination.”
169.“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.”
170.“Personally, I experience the greatest degree of pleasure in having contact with works of art. They furnish me with happy feelings of an intensity that I cannot derive from other sources.”
171.“Israel is the only place on earth where Jews have the possibility to shape public life according to their own traditional ideals.”
172.“There is only one road to human greatness: through the school of hard knocks.”
173.“Now to the term ‘relativity theory.’ I admit that it is unfortunate, and has given occasion to philosophical misunderstandings.”
174.“An hour sitting with a pretty girl on a park bench passes like a minute, but a minute sitting on a hot stove seems like an hour.”
175.“All of science is nothing more than the refinement of everyday thinking.”
176.“Although I am a typical loner in my daily life, my awareness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice has prevented me from feelings of isolation.”
177.“I cannot write in English, because of the treacherous spelling. When I am reading, I only hear it and am unable to remember what the written word looks like.”
178.“Fear or stupidity has always been the basis of most human actions.”
179.“I have remained a simple fellow who asks nothing of the world; only my youth is gone—the enchanting youth that forever walks on air.”
180.“Freedom of teaching and of opinion in book or press is the foundation for the sound and natural development of any people.”
181.“We must …dedicate our lives to drying up the source of war: ammunition factories.”
182.“Politics is a pendulum whose swings between anarchy and tyranny are fueled by perennially rejuvenated illusions.”
183.“The idea of a personal God is quite alien to me and seems even naïve.”
184.“Strange is our situation here on earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.”
185.“I would absolutely refuse any direct or indirect war service and would try to persuade my friends to do the same, regardless of the reasons for the cause of a war.”
186.“I do not play games…. There is not time for it. When I get through with work, I don’t want anything that requires the working of the mind.
187.“He who has never been deceived by a lie does not know the meaning of bliss.”
188.“Even the scholars in various lands have been acting as if their brains had been amputated.”
189.“I myself should also be dead already, but I am still here.”
190.“Every reminiscence is colored by the way things are today, and therefore by a delusive point of view.”
191.“It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.”
192.“Mere unbelief in a personal God is no philosophy at all.”
193.“The more one chases the quanta, the better they hide themselves.”
194.“Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty.”
195.“It is not so important where one settles down. The best thing is to follow your instincts without too much reflection.”
196.“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.”
197.“You must be aware that most men (and also not only a few women) are by nature not monogamous. This nature makes itself even more forceful when tradition and circumstance stand in an individual’s way.”
198.“The value of an education in a liberal arts college is not the learning of many facts, but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks.”
199.“I am very happy with my new home in friendly America and in the liberal atmosphere of Princeton.”
200.“I know what it’s like to see one’s mother go through the agony of death and be unable to help; there is no consolation. We all have to bear such heavy burdens, for they are unalterably linked to life.”
201.“When I was young, all I wanted and expected from life was to sit quietly in some corner doing my work without the public paying attention to me. And now see what has become of me.”
202.“The goal of pacifism is possible only though a supranational organization. To stand unconditionally for this cause is …the criterion of true pacifism.”
203.“The trite objects of human efforts—possessions, superficial success, luxury—have always seemed contemptible to me.”
204.“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.”
205.“There are two different conceptions about the nature of the universe:the world as a unity dependent on humanity; (2) the world as a reality independent of the human factor.”
206.“No idea is conceived in our mind independent of our five senses“What really interests me is whether God could have created the world any differently; in other words, whether the demand for logical simplicity leaves any freedom at all.”
207.“At present every coachman and every waiter argues about whether or not the relativity theory is correct.”
208.“The solitude and peace of mind are serving me quite well, not the least of which is due to the excellent and truly enjoyable relationship with my cousin; its stability will be guaranteed by the avoidance of marriage.
209.“It is abhorrent to me when a fine intelligence is paired with an unsavory character.”
210.“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
211.“To obtain an assured favorable response from people, it is better to offer them something for their stomachs instead of their brains.”
212.“Arrows of hate have been aimed at me too, but they have never hit me, because somehow they belonged to another world with which I have no connection whatsoever.”
213.“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.”
214.“I do not like to state an opinion on a matter unless I know the precise facts.”
215.“…I became more and more convinced that even nature could be understood as a relatively simple mathematical structure.”
216.“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.”
217.“There have already been published by the bucketsful such brazen lies and utter fictions about me that I would long since have gone to my grave if I had allowed myself to pay attention to them.”
218.“Berlin is the place to which I am most closely bound by human and scientific ties.”
219.“Man is, at one and the same time, a solitary being and a social being….”
220.“Germany had the misfortune of becoming poisoned, first because of plenty, and then because of want.”
221.“Only in mathematics and physics was I, through self-study, far beyond the school curriculum, and also with regard to philosophy as it was taught in the school curriculum.”
222.“The ordinary adult never gives a thought to space-time problems….I, on the contrary, developed so slowly that I did not begin to wonder about space and time until I was an adult. I then delved more deeply into the problem than any other adult or child would have done.”
223.“I have to apologize to you that I am still among the living. There will be a remedy for this, however.”
224.“The Press, which is mostly controlled by vested interests, has an excessive influence on public opinion.”
225.“Scientific research can reduce superstition by encouraging people to think and view things in terms of cause and effect.”
226.“O, Youth: Do you know that yours is not the first generation to yearn for a life full of beauty and freedom?”
227.“It is really a puzzle what drives one to take one’s work so devilishly seriously….”
