Albert Einstein

Quotes

• “Wording in Ideas and Opinions: The desire for guidance, love, and support prompts men to form the social or moral concep...”
• “Variant transcription from "Death of a Genius" in Life Magazine: "Then do not stop to think about the reasons for what y...”
• “How it happened that I in particular discovered the relativity theory, it seemed to lie in the following circumstance. T...”
• “The longing for guidance, for love and succor, provides the stimulus for the growth of a social or moral conception of G...”
• “What the inventive genius of mankind has bestowed upon us in the last hundred years could have made human life care free...”
• “Attributed in Einstein: The Life and Times by Ronald W. Clark (1971), p. 737. The only source given in the end notes is ...”
• “Our situation on this earth seems strange. Every one of us appears here involuntarily and uninvited for a short stay, wi...”
• “It is this mythical, or rather this symbolic, content of the religious traditions which is likely to come into conflict ...”
• “The work on satisfactory formulation of technical patents was a true blessing for me. It compelled me to be many-sided i...”
• “Variant, from Preface to Max Planck's Where is Science Going? (1933): The supreme task of the physicist is the discovery...”
• “What I mean when I suggest a correspondence between good science and good poetic overtones is perhaps illustrated by a s...”
• “This or similar statements are more often misattributed to Herbert Spencer, but the source of the phrase "contempt prior...”
• “Some people have reported that Einstein was quite a good musician, but others weren't so enthusiastic. A professional vi...”
• “It is true that many mathematicians and physicists do their best work when young. But in Einstein's later work we see so...”
• “Here is a man who changed the way the way we see reality, who stared down hatred and stood up for justice, yet despite a...”
• “The meaning of relativity has been widely misunderstood. Philosophers play with the word, like a child with a doll. Rela...”
• “There is no such thing as a simple material universe. The old vision which Einstein maintained until the end of his life...”
• “This is the reason why all attempts to obtain a deeper knowledge of the foundations of physics seem doomed to me unless ...”
• “The individual has become more conscious than ever of his dependence upon society. But he does not experience this depen...”
• “For the most part we humans live with the false impression of security and a feeling of being at home in a seemingly tru...”
• “I believe with Schopenhauer: We can do what we wish, but we can only wish what we must. Practically, I am, nevertheless,...”
• “Translation: Somebody who reads only newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors appears to me like an extremel...”
• “Summing up, we may say that there is hardly one among the great problems, in which modern physics is so rich, to which E...”
• “Einstein had a rare ability to recognize the core principles that account for the world we observe. His perceptions were...”
• “He discovered a host of other basic results in theoretical physics and it has been pointed out more than once that if so...”
• “The standard bearers have grown weak in the defense of their priceless heritage, and the powers of darkness have been st...”
• “But to return to the Jewish question. Other groups and nations cultivate their individual traditions. There is no reason...”
• “During that year in Aarau the question came to me: If one runs after a light wave with [a velocity equal to the] light v...”
• “Most scientists are happiest when they are making clear progress, solving some perhaps small but well-defined and signif...”
• “When a man after long years of searching chances on a thought which discloses something of the beauty of this mysterious...”
• “I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one. You may call me an agnostic, bu...”
• “George Gamow, in his autobiography My World Line: An Informal Autobiography (1970), p. 44. Here the "cosmological term" ...”
• “Paula Gunn Allen's description of the tribal culture is helpful in understanding this concept of energy dispersal: "The ...”
• “Wording in Ideas and Opinions: Everything that the human race has done and thought is concerned with the satisfaction of...”
• “Einer, der nur Zeitungen liest und, wenn's hochkommt, Bücher zeitgenössischer Autoren, kommt mir vor wie ein hochgradig ...”
• “A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe", a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself,...”
• “Development of Western Science is based on two great achievements, the invention of the formal logical system (in Euclid...”
• “I do not believe in freedom of the will. Schopenhauer's words: "Man can do what he wants, but he cannot will what he wil...”
• “What do you think of Spinoza? For me he is the ideal example of the cosmic man. He worked as an obscure diamond cutter, ...”
• “Certainly there are things worth believing. I believe in the brotherhood of man and in personal originality. But if you ...”
• “It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the ho...”
• “We may assume the existence of an aether; only we must give up ascribing a definite state of motion to it, i.e. we must ...”
• “In response to not knowing the speed of sound as included in the Edison Test: New York Times (18 May 1921); Einstein: Hi...”
• “I am absolutely convinced that no wealth in the world can help humanity forward, even in the hands of the most devoted w...”
• “I sometimes ask myself how did it come that I was the one to develop the theory of relativity. The reason, I think, is t...”
• “The only progress I can see is progress in the organization. The ordinary human being does not live long enough to draw ...”
• “Ein Mensch ist ein räumlich und zeitlich beschränktes Stück des Ganzen, was wir „Universum" nennen. Er erlebt sich und s...”
• “I do not believe in free will. Schopenhauer's words: 'Man can do what he wants, but he cannot will what he wills,' accom...”
• “I believe in intuitions and inspirations. I sometimes feel that I am right. I do not know that I am. When two expedition...”
• “Variant: "Working on the final formulation of technological patents was a veritable blessing for me. It enforced many-si...”