The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
-Oscar Wilde.
However brilliant an action may be, it should not be accounted great when it is not the result of a great purpose.
Great geniuses have the shortest biographies. Their cousins can tell you nothing about them.
-R W Emerson.
We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
-E M Forster.
The hardest of all is learning to be a well of affection, and not a fountain; to show them we love them not when we feel like it, but when they do.
-Nan Fairbrother.
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.
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.
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.
It is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions in political affairs.
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.
If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.
The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods.
You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.
At any rate, I am convinced that He [God] does not play dice.
Albert Einstein, In a letter to Max Born, 1926
If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.
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 and fulfills the duty to express the results of his thought in clear form.
The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.
When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint, something inside always reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry about.
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.
Albert Einstein, when asked to describe radio.
Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish.
Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.
Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience.
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.
Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love? Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.
If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith.
If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.
Imagination is more important than knowledge...
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.
Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.
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.
Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. The trite subjects of human efforts, possessions, outward success, luxury have always seemed to me contemptible.
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
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.
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.
The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible.
The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.
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.
Truth is what stands the test of experience.
Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.
We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
