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Albert Einstein

412 quotes

“Then I would have felt sorry for the dear Lord. The theory is correct.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: When asked by a student what he would have done if Sir Arthur Eddington's famous 1919 gravitational lensing experiment, which confirmed relativity, had instead disproved it.
“Dimensionless constants in the laws of nature, which from the purely logical point of view can just as well have different values, should not exist.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Begegnungen mit Einstein, von Laue, und Planck (1988) by Ilse Rosenthal-Schneider, p. 31, English edition Reality and Scientific Truth : Discussions with Einstein, von Laue, and Planck (1980) by Ilse Rosent…
“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by Ernst Straus in Einstein: A Centenary Volume by A.P. French (1980), p. 32.
“It's a very strange book (The Secret Doctrine) and I've even told professor Heisenberg, my fellow physicist, to get a copy and keep it on his desk. I urged him to dip into it when he's handicapped by some problem. The strangeness of this book may relax or possibly inspire him.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: I Visit Professor Einstein by Jack Brown published in Ojai Valley News,(28 September 1983)
“If I can't picture it, I can't understand it.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Attributed to Einstein by physicist John Archibald Wheeler in John Horgan's article "Profile: Physicist John A. Wheeler, Questioning the 'It from Bit'". Scientific American, pp. 36-37, June 1991. Reprinted here after Wh…
“I said before, the most beautiful and most profound religious emotion that we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. And this mysticality is the power of all true science. If there is any such concept as a God, it is a subtle spirit, not an image of a man that so many have fixed in their minds. In essence, my religion consists of a humble admiration for this illimitable superior spirit that reveals itself in the slight details that we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Private Albert Einstein (1992) by Peter A. Bucky and Allen G. Weakland, p. 86
“The physicists say that I am a mathematician, and the mathematicians say that I am a physicist. I am a completely isolated man and though everybody knows me, there are very few people who really know me.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement recorded in the diary of his companion Johanna Fantova, quoted at the end of the New York Times story "From Companion's Lost Diary, A Portrait of Einstein in Old Age" by Dennis Overbye (24 April 2004)
“Even on the most solemn occasions I got away without wearing socks and hid that lack of civilisation in high boots.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Albert Einstein in a letter to his cousin and second wife Elsa, during a visit to the University of Oxford, in collection donated to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel by Einstein's stepdaughter Margot, as quo…
“The more I study science, the more I believe in God.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in a WSJ 1994 article Science Resurrects God.
“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.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Carl Seelig (25 October 1953), p. 22
“Never before have I lived through a storm like the one this night. ... The sea has a look of indescribable grandeur, especially when the sun falls on it. One feels as if one is dissolved and merged into Nature. Even more than usual, one feels the insignificance of the individual, and it makes one happy.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Entry in a travel diary (10 December 1931) discussing a storm at sea, p. 23
“Measured objectively, what a man can wrest from Truth by passionate striving is utterly infinitesimal. But the striving frees us from the bonds of the self and makes us comrades of those who are the best and the greatest.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A note Einstein wrote underneath an etching of himself (made by Hermann Struck) which he sent to a friend, Dr. Hans Mühsam. According to the book, "the date is 1920 or perhaps earlier", p. 24
“There has been an earth for a little more than a billion years. As for the question of the end of it I advise: Wait and see!”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Where the world ceases to be the scene of our personal hopes and wishes, where we face it as free beings admiring, asking, 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 meaningful, then we are engaged in art. Common to both is love and devotion to that which transcends personal concerns and volition.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 37 - 27 January 1921
“Body and soul are not two different things, but only two different ways of perceiving the same thing. Similarly, physics and psychology are only different attempts to link our experiences together by way of systematic thought.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Aphorism (1937), p. 38
“I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reply to a letter sent to him on 17 July 1953 p. 39
“I have never imputed to Nature a purpose or a goal, or anything that could be understood as anthropomorphic. 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.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Draft of a German reply to a letter sent to him in 1954 or 1955, p. 39
“The mystical trend of our time, which shows itself particularly in the rampant growth of the so-called Theosophy and Spiritualism, is for me no more than a symptom of weakness and confusion. Since our inner experiences consist of reproductions and combinations of sensory impressions, the concept of a soul without a body seem to me to be empty and devoid of meaning.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement (5 February 1921), p. 40
“It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to an atheist (24 March 1954), p. 43
“Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From the same 24 March 1954 letter as above, p. 44
“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.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter (30 July 1947), p. 46
“Falling in love is not at all the most stupid thing that people do — but gravitation cannot be held responsible for it.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jotted (in German) on the margins of a letter to him (1933), p. 56
“Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to California student E. Holzapfel (March 1951) Einstein Archive 59-1013, p. 57
“Anonymity is no excuse for stupidity.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: c. 1948, p. 54
“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.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 66 of the 1981 edition
“It seems hard to sneak a look at God's cards. But that He plays dice and uses "telepathic" methods... is something that I cannot believe for a single moment.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Cornel Lanczos (21 March 1942), p. 68
“For the most part we humans live with the false impression of security and a feeling of being at home in a seemingly trustworthy physical and human environment. But when the expected course of everyday life is interrupted, we are like shipwrecked people on a miserable plank in the open sea, having forgotten where they came from and not knowing whither they are drifting. But once we fully accept this, life becomes easier and there is no longer any disappointment.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter (26 April 1945), p. 72
“Study and in general the pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Adrianna Enriques (October 1921), p. 83
“The most important human 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 to life. To make this a living force and bring it to clear consciousness is perhaps the foremost task of education. The foundation of morality should not be made dependent on myth nor tied to any authority lest doubt about the myth or about the legitimacy of the authority imperil the foundation of sound judgment and action.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to the minister of a church in Brooklyn (20 November 1950), p. 95. The minister had earlier written Einstein asking if he would send him a signed version of a quote about the Catholic church attributed to Einstei…
“If the believers of the present-day religions would earnestly try to think and act in the spirit of the founders of these religions then no hostility on the basis of religion would exist among the followers of the different faiths. Even the conflicts and the realm of religion would be exposed as insignificant.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement to Christian conference (27 January 1947), p. 96
“Philosophy is like a mother who gave birth to and endowed all the other sciences. Therefore, one should not scorn her in her nakedness and poverty, but should hope, rather, that part of her Don Quixote ideal will live on in her children so that they do not sink into philistinism.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1932 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (28 September 1932), p. 106
“The most important tool of the theoretical physicist is his wastebasket.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Physics is essentially an intuitive and concrete science. Mathematics is only a means for expressing the laws that govern phenomena.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From Lettre à Maurice Solvine, by A. Einstein (Gauthier-Villars: Paris 1956)
“Who would have thought around 1900 that in fifty years time we would know so much more and understand so much less.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From Albert Einstein and the Cosmic World Order, by C. Lanczos (Wiley, New York, 1956)
“The basic laws of the universe are simple, but because our senses are limited, we can't grasp them. There is a pattern in creation.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But we have higher mathematics, haven't we? This gives me freedom from my senses. The language of mathematics is even more inborn and universal than the language of music; a mathematical formula is crystal clear and independent of all sense organs. I therefore built a mathematical laboratory, set myself in it as if I were sitting in a car, and moved along with a beam of light.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Since others have explained my theory, I can no longer understand it myself.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science is never finished because the human mind only uses a small portion of its capacity, and man's exploration of his world is also limited. If we look at this tree outside whose roots search beneath the pavement for water, or a flower which sends its sweet smell to the pollinating bees, or even our own selves and the inner forces that drive us to act, we can see that we all dance to a mysterious tune, and the piper who plays this melody from an inscrutable distance—whatever name we give him—Creative Force, or God—escapes all book knowledge.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What do you think of Spinoza? For me he is the ideal example of the cosmic man. He worked as an obscure diamond cutter, disdaining fame and a place at the table of the great. He tells us the importance of understanding our emotions and suggests what causes them. Man will never be free until he is able to direct his emotions to think clearly. Only then can he control his environment and preserve his energy for creative work.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What a betrayal of man's dignity. He uses the highest gift, his mind, only ten percent, and his emotions and instincts ninety percent.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1929 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 31; spoken on hearing German marchers singing war songs. On p. 474 of Alice Calaprice's The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, she lists "we only use 10 percent of our brain" as a quote "misattributed to Einstein", perhaps …
“Matter is real to my senses, but they aren't trustworthy. If Galileo or Copernicus had accepted what they saw, they would never have discovered the movement of the earth and planets.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If I hadn't an absolute faith in the harmony of creation, I wouldn't have tried for thirty years to express it in a mathematical formula. It is only man's consciousness of what he does with his mind that elevates him above the animals, and enables him to become aware of himself and his relationship to the universe.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The God Spinoza revered is my God, too: I meet Him everyday in the harmonious laws which govern the universe. My religion is cosmic, and my God is too universal to concern himself with the intentions of every human being. I do not accept a religion of fear; My God will not hold me responsible for the actions that necessity imposes. My God speaks to me through laws.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I believe in one thing—that only a life lived for others is a life worth living.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If we want to improve the world we cannot do it with scientific knowledge but with ideals. Confucius, Buddha, Jesus and Gandhi have done more for humanity than science has done. We must begin with the heart of man—with his conscience—and the values of conscience can only be manifested by selfless service to mankind. In this respect, I feel that the Churches have much guilt. She has always allied herself with those who rule, who have political power, and more often than not, at the expense of peace and humanity as a whole.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Religion and science go together. As I've said before, science without religion is lame and religion without science is blind. They are interdependent and have a common goal—the search for truth. Hence it is absurd for religion to proscribe Galileo or Darwin or other scientists. And it is equally absurd when scientists say that there is no God. The real scientist has faith, which does not mean that he must subscribe to a creed. Without religion there is no charity. The soul given to each of us is moved by the same living spirit that moves the universe.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I believe that we don't need to worry about what happens after this life, as long as we do our duty here—to love and to serve.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have faith in the universe, for it is rational. Law underlies each happening. And I have faith in my purpose here on earth. I have faith in my intuition, the language of my conscience, but I have no faith in speculation about Heaven and Hell. I'm concerned with this time—here and now.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Philosophy is empty if it isn't based on science. Science discovers, philosophy interprets.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And the traditional religions worry me. Their long history proves that they have not understood the meaning of the commandment: Thou shalt not kill. If we want to save this world from unimaginable destruction we should concentrate not on the faraway God, but on the heart of the individual. We live now in an international anarchy in which a Third World War with nuclear weapons lies before our door. We must make the individual man aware of his conscience so that he understands what it means that only a few will survive the next war.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source