586 Intelligent Quotes by Albert Einstein
Wikipedia Summary for Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( EYEN-styne; German: [ˈalbɛʁt ˈʔaɪnʃtaɪn]; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest physicists of all time. Einstein is known for developing the theory of relativity, but he also made important contributions to the development of the theory of quantum mechanics. Relativity and quantum mechanics are together the two pillars of modern physics. His mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, which arises from relativity theory, has been dubbed "the world's most famous equation".
His work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect", a pivotal step in the development of quantum theory. His intellectual achievements and originality resulted in "Einstein" becoming synonymous with "genius". In 1905, a year sometimes described as his annus mirabilis ('miracle year'), Einstein published four groundbreaking papers. These outlined the theory of the photoelectric effect, explained Brownian motion, introduced special relativity, and demonstrated mass-energy equivalence.
Einstein thought that the laws of classical mechanics could no longer be reconciled with those of the electromagnetic field, which led him to develop his special theory of relativity. He then extended the theory to gravitational fields; he published a paper on general relativity in 1916, introducing his theory of gravitation. In 1917, he applied the general theory of relativity to model the structure of the universe.
He continued to deal with problems of statistical mechanics and quantum theory, which led to his explanations of particle theory and the motion of molecules. He also investigated the thermal properties of light and the quantum theory of radiation, which laid the foundation of the photon theory of light. However, for much of the later part of his career, he worked on two ultimately unsuccessful endeavors. First, despite his great contributions to quantum mechanics, he opposed what it evolved into, objecting that nature "does not play dice". Second, he attempted to devise a unified field theory by generalizing his geometric theory of gravitation to include electromagnetism. As a result, he became increasingly isolated from the mainstream of modern physics.
Einstein was born in the German Empire, but moved to Switzerland in 1895, forsaking his German citizenship (as a subject of the Kingdom of Württemberg) the following year. In 1897, at the age of 17, he enrolled in the mathematics and physics teaching diploma program at the Swiss Federal polytechnic school (later renamed as ETH Zurich) in Zürich, graduating in 1900. In 1901 he acquired Swiss citizenship, which he kept for the rest of his life, and in 1903 he secured a permanent position at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern. In 1905, he was awarded a PhD by the University of Zurich. In 1914, Einstein moved to Berlin in order to join the Prussian Academy of Sciences and the Humboldt University of Berlin. In 1917, Einstein became director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics; he also became a German citizen again – Prussian this time.
In 1933, while Einstein was visiting the United States, Adolf Hitler came to power. Einstein did not return to Germany because he objected to the policies of the newly elected Nazi-led government. He settled in the United States and became an American citizen in 1940. On the eve of World War II, he endorsed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt alerting him to the potential German nuclear weapons program and recommending that the US begin similar research. Einstein supported the Allies, but generally denounced the idea of nuclear weapons.
I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.
The devil has put a penalty on all things we enjoy in life. Either we suffer in health or we suffer in soul or we get fat.
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
Conscious man, to be sure, has at all times been keenly aware that life is an adventure, that life must, forever, be wrested from death.

It is my inner conviction that the development of science seeks in the main to satisfy the longing for pure knowledge.
I am not a genius, I am just curious. I ask many questions. and when the answer is simple, then God is answering.
Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men with the hope they will change. Invariably they are both disappointed.
What I seek to accomplish is simply to serve with my feeble capacity truth and justice, at the risk of pleasing no one.
The most beautiful gift of nature is that it gives one pleasure to look around and try to comprehend what we see.
It is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions in political affairs.
I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.
In art, and in the higher ranges of science, there is a feeling of harmony which underlies all endeavor. There is no true greatness in art or science without that sense of harmony.
Art is standing with one hand extended into the universe and one hand extended into the world, and letting ourselves be a conduit for passing energy.
When you trip over love, it is easy to get up. But when you fall in love, it is impossible to stand again.
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler. A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be. We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy? Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction. All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.
Force always attracts men of low morality.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
An autocratic system of coercion, in my opinion, soon degenerates. For force always attracts men of low morality, and I believe it to be an invariable rule that tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels. For this reason I have always been passionately opposed to systems such as we see in Italy and Russia to-day.
The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.
There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance.
That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.
Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.
Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts.
The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

One definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

People like you and I, though mortal of course like everyone else, do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born.

That man is here for the sake of other men -- above all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness depends.

Only a life lived for others is a life worth living.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile . I have no special gift. I am only passionately curious . I want to know God's thoughts... all the rest are details. Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift. It's not that I'm so smart , it's just that I stay with problems longer.

The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless, is not merely unfortunate, but almost disqualified for life.

There are two things that are infinite, the universe and man's stupidity and I am not sure about the universe.

The person who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
The person who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The person who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever seen before.

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 from the spirit of man.

For us physicists believe the separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, although a convincing one.

This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism on command, senseless violence and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism.

It may affront the military-minded person to suggest a regime that does not maintain any military secrets.

For scientific endeavor is a natural whole the parts of which mutually support one another in a way which, to be sure, no one can anticipate.

In the shadow of the atomic bomb it has become even more apparent that all men are, indeed, brothers.

Do things sound better in your head before you say them, or do you even run them through there first?

The health of society thus depends quite as much on the independence of the individuals composing it as on their close political cohesion.

That's my mathematician who examines problems which I put before him and checks their validity. You see, I am not myself a good mathematician.

While it is true that an inherently free and scrupulous person may be destroyed, such an individual can never be enslaved or used as a blind tool.

Albert is a very poor student. He is mentally slow, unsociable and is always daydreaming. He is spoiling it for the rest of the class. It would be in the best interests of all if he were removed from school immediately.

The years of anxious searching in the dark, with their intense longing, their alternations of confidence and exhaustion and the final emergence into the light -- only those who have experienced it can understand it.

All of us who are concerned for peace and triumph of reason and justice must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert upon events in the political field.

The golden proportion is a scale of proportions which makes the bad difficult to produce and the good easy.

Most people go on living their everyday life: half-frightened, half indifferent, they behold the ghostly tragic-comedy that is being performed on the international stage before the eyes and ears of the world.

It would seem that men always need some idiotic fiction in the name of which they can hate one another. Once it was religion. Now it is the State.

We must remember that we do not observe nature as it actually exists, but nature exposed to our methods of perception. The theories determine what we can or cannot observe...Reality is an illusion, albeit a persistent one.

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.

If I am right the Germans will say I was a German, and the French will say I was a Jew; If I am wrong the Germans will say I was a Jew and the French will say I was a German.

Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in producing an atomic bomb, I would not have lifted a finger.

The only justification for our concepts and systems of concepts is that they serve to represent the complex of our experiences; beyond this they have not legitimacy.

It is true that my parents were worried because I began to speak fairly late, so that they even consulted a doctor. I can't say how old I was -- but surely not less than three.

I wish to do something Great and Wonderful, but I must start by doing the little things like they were Great and Wonderful.

Innovation is not the product of logical thought, even though the final product is tied to a logical structure.

It is a magnificent feeling to recognize the unity of complex phenomena which appear to be things quite apart from the direct visible truth.

There is an atmosphere of well-sounding oratory that likes to attach itself to dress clothes. Away with it!

I am an absolute pacifist...It is an instinctive feeling. It is a feeling that possesses me, because the murder of men is disgusting.

A conviction akin to religious feeling of the rationality or intelligibility of the world lies behind all scientific work of a high order.

The opinion prevailed among 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.

Now to the term 'relativity theory.' I admit that it is unfortunate, and has given occasion to philosophical misunderstandings.

Out yonder there was this huge world...which stands before us like a great eternal riddle.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
Out yonder there is this huge world, which exists independently of us human beings and which stands before us like a great, eternal riddle, at least partially accessible to our inspection and thinking.

I would not think that philosophy and reason themselves will be man's guide in the foreseeable future; however, they will remain the most beautiful sanctuary they have always been for the select few.

When I have one week to solve a seemingly impossible problem, I spend six days defining the problem. Then, the solution becomes obvious.

It takes a different kind of thinking to solve a problem than the kind of thinking which produced the problem.

As long as I have any choice in the matter, I shall live only in a country where civil liberty, tolerance and equality of all citizens before the law prevail.

If the workers of this world, men and women, decide not to manufacture and transport ammunition, it would end war for all time. We must do that. Dedicate our lives to drying up the source of war; ammunition factories.

At present every coachman and every waiter argues about whether or not the relativity theory is correct.

Do you remember how electrical currents and 'unseen waves' were laughed at? The knowledge about man is still in its infancy.

I believe we are here to do good. It is the responsibility of every human being to aspire to do something worthwhile, to make the world a better place than the one we found.

I believe serious progress (in the abolition of war) can be achieved only when men become organized on an international scale and refuse, as a body, to enter military or war service.

The idea of achieving security through national armament is, at the present state of military technique, a disastrous illusion.

Any brief military advantage the USA might gain with nuclear weapons would be offset by political and psychological losses and damage to American prestige. The United States might even touch off a worldwide armaments race.

The armament industry is indeed one of the greatest dangers that beset mankind. It is the hidden evil power.

Joy and amazement of the beauty and grandeur of this world of which man can just form a faint notion.

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.

Relativity teaches us the connection between the different descriptions of one and the same reality.

What I'm really interested in is whether God could have made the world in a different way; that is, whether the necessity of logical simplicity leaves any freedom at all.

The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of evil.

Music has no effect on research work, but both are born of the same source and complement each other through the satisfaction they bestow.

This is a question too difficult for a mathematician. It should be asked of a philosopher(when asked about completing his income tax form).

Whoever is devoid of the capacity to wonder, whoever remains unmoved, whoever cannot contemplate or know the deep shudder of the soul in enchantment, might just as well be dead for he has already closed his eyes upon life.

What is significant in one's own existence one is hardly aware, and it certainly should not bother the other fellow. What does a fish know about the water in which he swims all his life?

Human beings, in their thinking, feeling and acting are not free agents but are as causally bound as the stars in their motion.

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.

We will hope that future historians will explain the morbid symptoms of present-day society as the childhood ailments of an aspiring humanity, due entirely to the excessive speed at which civilization was advancing.

The analogy I like is this imagine being able to see the world but you are deaf, and then suddenly someone gives you the ability to hear things as well -- you get an extra dimension of perception.

Growth comes through analogy; through seeing how things connect, rather than only seeing how they might be different.

It is my belief that the problem of bringing peace to the world on a supranational basis will be solved only by employing Gandhi's method on a larger scale.

To stimulate creativity one must develop childlike inclination for play and the childlike desire for recognition.

Smoke like a chimney, work like a horse, eat without thinking, go for a walk only in really pleasant company.

Creating a new theory is not like destroying an old barn and erecting a skyscraper in its place. It is rather like climbing a mountain and gaining new and wider views.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
Creating a new theory is not like destroying an old barn and erecting a skyscraper in its place. It is rather like climbing a mountain, gaining new and wider views, discovering unexpected connections between our starting points and its rich environment. But the point from which we started out still exists and can be seen, although it appears smaller and forms a tiny part of our broad view gained by the mastery of the obstacles on our adventurous way up.

New frameworks are like climbing a mountain -- the larger view encompasses rather than rejects the more restricted view.

Compound interest on debt was the banker's greatest invention, to capture, and enslave, a productive society.

The history of scientific and technical discovery teaches us that the human race is poor in independent and creative imagination.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
The history of scientific and technical discovery teaches us that the human race is poor in independent and creative imagination. Even when the external and scientific requirements for the birth of an idea have long been there, it generally needs an external stimulus to make it actually happen; man has, so to speak, to stumble right up against the thing before the idea comes.

Scientific greatness is less a matter of intelligence than character; if the scientist refuses to compromise or accept incomplete answers and persists in grappling the most basic and difficult questions.

So would a Being, endowed with higher insight and more perfect intelligence, watching man and his doings, smile about man's illusion that he was acting according to his own free will.

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.

Science not only purifies the religious impulse of the dross of its anthropomorphism but also contributes to a religious spiritualization of our understanding of life.

Science is the attempt to make the chaotic diversity of our sense-experience correspond to a logically uniform system of thought.

What the individual can do is to give a fine example, and to have the courage to uphold ethical values .. in a society of cynics.
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