60 greatest Quotes by the world’s conventional genius: Albert Einstein
He changed the world of science, but he offered great wisdom for all of life. His genius should be remembered. His thoughts can motivate, and create hope. I hope his words will inspire you as they have for me. So, without further ado, here is a collection of his best quotes. Enjoy.
1. "We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages. The child knows someone must have written those books . It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see a universe marvelously arranges and obeying certain laws, but only dimly understand these laws. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations."
2. “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
3. "A human being is part of the whole called by us universe , a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of 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 the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty...We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive."
4. "Everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler."
5. "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
6. "Strange is our situation here upon this earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose."
7. "There remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion."
8. "Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune intoned in the distance by an invisible player."
9. "Do you believe in immortality? No, and one life is enough for me."
10. "Scientists were rated as great heretics by the church, but they were truly religious men because of their faith in the orderliness of the universe."
11. "If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"
12. "Intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them."
13. "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science."
14. "If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor."
15. "People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."
16. "It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity."
17. "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
18. "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile."
19. "The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."
20. "Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding."
21. "The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable receiving."
22. "Try not to be a person of success, but rather a person of virtue."
23. "Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value."
24. "So long as there are men there will be wars."
25. "Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."
26. "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
27. "I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."
28. "I believe in standardizing automobiles, not human beings."
29. "Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
30. "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."
31. "It is not by sitting still at a grand distance and calling the human race larvae that men are to be helped."
32. "A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
33. "America is today the hope of all honorable men who respect the rights of their fellow men and who believe in the principle of freedom and justice."
34. "Perfection of means and confusion of ends seem to characterize our age."
35. "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
36. "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
37. "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. [He was speaking of Quantum Mechanics and the breaking down of determinism.] 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."
38. "The only real valuable thing is intuition."
39. "If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X + Y + Z, X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut."
40. "A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."
41. "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once."
42. "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
43. "Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy."
44. "The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits."
45. "The most aggravating thing about the younger generation is that I no longer belong to it."
46. When his wife asked him to change clothes to meet the German Ambassador: "they want to see me, here I am. If they want to see my clothes, open my closet and show them my suits."
47. "With fame, I become more and more stupid, which of course is a very common phenomenon."
48. "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."
49. "When forced to summarize the general theory of relativity in one sentence: Time and space and gravitation have no separate existence from matter."
50. "The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives."
51. "The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent or absorbing positive knowledge."
52. "I am content in my later years. I have kept my good humor and take neither myself nor the next person seriously."
53. "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."
54. "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."
55. "When the solution is simple, God is answering."
56. “Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."
57. "I am neither especially clever nor especially gifted. I am only very, very curious."
58. “The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."
59. "I maintain that the cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest motive for scientific research.”
60. When Einstein died on April 18, 1955 he left a piece of writing ending in an unfinished sentence. These were his last words: “In essence, the conflict that exists today is no more than an old-style struggle for power, once again presented to mankind in semi religious trappings. The difference is that, this time, the development of atomic power has imbued the struggle with a ghostly character; for both parties know and admit that, should the quarrel deteriorate into actual war, mankind is doomed. Despite this knowledge, statesmen in responsible positions on both sides continue to employ the well-known technique of seeking to intimidate and demoralize the opponent by marshaling superior military strength. They do so even though such a policy entails the risk of war and doom. Not one statesman in a position of responsibility has dared to pursue the only course that holds out any promise of peace, the course of supranational security, since for a statesman to follow such a course would be tantamount to political suicide. Political passions, once they have been fanned into flame, exact their victims ... Citater fra...