Albert Einstein Quotes

The teaching of Relativity

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

The formulation of Relativity

"I sometimes ask myself how it came about that I was the one to develop the theory of relativity. The reason, I think, is that a normal adult never stops to think about problems of space and time. These are things which he has thought about as a child. But my intellectual development was retarded,as a result of which I began to wonder about space and time only when I had already grown up".

On the Moon being there without Looking at It ...

"I think that a particle must have a separate reality independent of the measurements. That is an electron has spin, location and so forth even when it is not being measured. I like to think that the moon is there even if I am not looking at it.".

The goals of science

religion! an" our un"erstan"ing of life

"The more a man is imbued with the ordered regularity of all events the firmer becomes his conviction that there is no room left by the side of this ordered regularity for causes of a different nature. For him neither the rule of human nor the rule of divine will e ist as an independent cause of natural events. To be sure, the doctrine of a personal !od interfering with the natural events could never be refuted, in the real sense, by science, for this doctrine can always take refuge in those domains in which scientific knowledge has not yet been able to set foot. But I am persuaded that such behaviour on the part of the representatives of religion would not only be unworthy but also fatal. For a doctrine which is able to maintain itself not in clear light but only in the dark, will of necessity lose its effect on mankind, with incalculable harm to human progress .... If it is one of the goals of religions to liberate maknind as far as possible from the bondage of egocentric cravings, desires, and fears, scientific reasoning can aid religion in another sense. "lthough it is true that it is the goal of science to discover #the$ rules which permit the association and foretelling of facts, this is not its only aim.

It also seeks to reduce the connections discovered to the smallest possible number of mutually independent conceptual elements. It is in this striving after the rational unification of the manifold that it encounters its greatest successes, even though it is precisely this attempt which causes it to run the greatest risk of falling a prey to illusion. But whoever has undergone the intense e perience of successful advances made in this domain, is moved by the profound reverence for the rationality made manifest in e istence. By way of the understanding he achieves a far reaching emancipation from the shackles of personal hopes and desires, and thereby attains that humble attitude of mind toward the grandeur of reason, incarnate in e istence, and which, in its profoundest depths, is inaccessible to man. This attitude, however, appears to me to be religious in the highest sense of the word. "nd so it seems to me that science not only purifies the religious imulse of the dross of its anthropomorphism but also contibutes to a religious spiritualisation of our understanding of life".

"The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion. %erein lies the germ of all art and all true science. "nyone to whom this feeling is alien, who is no longer capable of wonderment and lives in a state of fear is a dead man. To know that what is impenatrable for us really e ists and manifests itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, whose gross forms alone are intelligible to our poor faculties & this knowledge, this feeling ... that is the core of the true religious sentiment. In this sense, and in this sense alone, I rank myself amoung profoundly religious men." #Wie Ich die Welt sehe, '()*$

The Tem#le of $cience! an" the $cientific Assembly ...

"In the temple of science are many mansions, and various indeed are they that dwell therein and the motives that have led them thither. +any take to science out of a ,oyful sense of superior intellectual power- science is their own special sport to which they look for vivid e perience and the satisfaction of ambitionmany others are to be found in the temple who have offered the products of their brains on this altar for purely utilitarian purposes. .ere an angel of the /ord to come and drive all the people belonging to these two categories out of the temple, the assemblage would be seriously depleted, but there would still be some men, of both present and past times, left inside"

The cosmic religious e%#erience

"The cosmic religious e perience is the strongest and noblest driving force behind scientific research. 0o one who does not appreciate the terrific e ertions and above all, the devotion without which pioneer creations in scientific thought cannot come into being, can

,udge the strength of the feeling out of which alone such work, turned away as it is from immediate practical life, can grow. .hat a deep faith in the rationality of the world and its structure and what a longing to understand even the smallest glimpses of the reason revealed in the world there must have been in 1epler and 0ewton ..."

&uman beings an" their circle of com#assion

"" human being is part of the whole called by us universe , a part limited in time and space. .e e perience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. " 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. 2ur 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... .e shall re3uire a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive."

"2ne should guard against inculcating a young man with the idea that success is the aim of life, for a successful man normally receives from his peers an incomparably greater portion than the services he has been able to render them deserve. The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving. The most important motive for study at school, at the university, and in life is the pleasure of working and thereby obtaining results which will serve the community. The most important task for our educators is to awaken and encourage these psychological forces in a young man. 4uch a basis alone can lead to the ,oy of possessing one of the most precious assets in the world & knowledge or artistic skill." #On Education, '()5$

Imagination an" 'nowle"ge ...

"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. 1nowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

The Tree of Life ...

""ll religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. "ll these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man6s life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical e istence and leading the individual towards freedom."

(rom On Freedom! )*+, "#'$ Those instrumental goods which should serve to maintain the life and health of all human beings should be produced by the least possible labour of all.

#7$ The satisfaction of physical needs is indeed the indispensible precondition of a satisfactory e istence, but in itself is not enough. In order to be content, men must also have the possibility of developing their intellectual and artistic powers to whatever e tent accord with their personal characteristics and abilities." "The development of science and of the creative activities of the spirit in general re3uires still another kind of freedom, which may be characterised as inward freedom. It is this freedom of the spirit which consists in the independence of thought from the restrictions of authoritarian and social pre,udices, as well as from unphilosophical routini8ing and habit in general. This inward freedom is an infre3uent gift of nature and a worthy ob,ect for the individual."

Morals an" Emotions ....

".e all know, from what we e perience with and within ourselves, that our conscious acts spring from our desires and our fears. Intuition tells us that that is true also of our fellows and of the higher animals. .e all try to escape pain and death, while we seek what is pleasant. .e are all ruled in what we do by impulses- and these impulses are so organised that our actions in general serve for our self preservation and that of the race. %unger, love, pain, fear are some of those inner forces which rule the individual6s instinct for self preservation. "t the same time, as social beings, we are moved in the relations with our fellow beings by such feelings as sympathy, pride, hate, need for power, pity, and so on. "ll these primary impulses, not easily described in words, are the springs of man6s actions. "ll such action would cease if those powerful elemental forces were to cease stirring within us. Though our conduct seems so very different from that of the higher animals, the primary instincts are much alike in them and in us. The most evident difference springs from the important part which is played in man by a relatively strong power of imagination and by the capacity to think, aided as it is by language and other symbolical devices. Thought is the organising factor in man, intersected between the causal primary instincts and the resulting actions. In that way imagination and intelligence enter into our e istence in the part of servants of the primary instincts. But their intervention makes our acts to serve ever less merely the immediate claims of our instincts."

The -ifficulty of the $ages ...

"The real difficulty, the difficulty which has baffled the sages of all times, is rather this9 how can we make our teaching so potent in the motional life of man, that its influence should withstand the pressure of the elemental psychic forces in the individual:"

(rom Science and Religion I .May )*/*0

";uring the last century, and part of the one before, it was widely held that there was an unreconcilable conflict between knowledge and belief. The opinion prevailed amoung 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. "ccording to this conception, the sole function of education was to open the way to thinking and knowing, and the school, as the outstanding organ for the people6s education, must serve that end e clusively." "1nowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be. < "Intelligence makes clear to us the interrelationship of means and ends. But mere thinking cannot give us a sense of the ultimate and fundamental ends. To make clear these fundamental ends and valuations and to set them fast in the emotional life of the individual, seems to me precisely the most important function which religion has to form in the social life of man. If one asks then whence derives the authority of fundamental ends, since they cannot be stated and ,ustifed merely by reason, one can only answer9 they e ist in a healthy society as powerful traditions, which act upon the conduct and aspirations and ,udgements of the individuals- they are there, that is, as something living, without its being necessary to find ,ustification for their e istence. They come into being not through demonstration but through revelation, through the medium of powerful personalities. 2ne must not attempt to ,ustify them, but rather to sense their nature simply and clearly. The highest principles for our aspirations and ,udgements are given to us in the =ewish& >hristian religious tradition. It is a very high goal which, with our weak powers, we can reach only very inade3uately, but which gives a sure foundation to our aspirations and valuations. If one were to take that goal out of its religious form and look merely at its purely human side, one might state it perhaps thus9 free and responsible development of the individual, so that he may place his powers freely and gladly in the service of all mankind. <... it is only to the individual that a soul is given. "nd the high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule, or to impose himself in any otherway."

(rom Science and Religion II .)*+,0

"4cience is the century&old endeavour to bring together by means of systematic thought the perceptible phenomena of this world into as thorough&going an association as possible. To put it boldly, it is the attempt at a posterior reconstruction of e istence by the process of conceptualisation.? <4cience can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside of its domain value ,udgements of all kinds remain necessary." ".hen the number of factors coming into play in a phenomenological comple is too large, scientific method in most cases fails. 2ne need only think of the weather, in which

case the prediction even for a few days ahead is impossible. 0everthess, none doubts that we are confronted with a causal connection whose causal components are in the main known to us. 2ccurrences in this domain are beyond the reach of e act prediction because of the variety of factors in operation, not because of any lack of order in nature. .e have penetrated far less deeply into the regularities obtaining within the realm of living things, but deeply enough nevertheless to sense at least the rule of fi ed necessity@ .hat is still lacking here is a grasp of the connections of profound generality, but not a knowledge of order itself.?

The first ste# in the setting of a 1real e%ternal worl"1 ...

"I believe that the first step in the setting of a 6real e ternal world6 is the formation of the concept of bodily ob,ects and of bodily ob,ects of various kinds. 2ut of the multitude of our sense e periences we take, mentally and arbitrarily, certain repeatedly occurring comple es of sense impression #partly in con,unction with sense impressions which areinterpreted as signs for sense e periences of others$, and we attribute to them a meaning the meaning of the bodily ob,ect. >onsidered logically this concept is not identical with the totality of sense impressions referred to- but it is an arbitrary creation of the human #or animal$ mind. 2n the other hand, the concept owes its meaning and its ,ustification e clusively to the totality of the sense impressions which we associate with it."

E%#erience2 3ersonal an" 4osmic ...

+an tries to make for himself in the fashion that suits him best a simplified and intelligible picture of the world- he then tries to some e tent to substitute this cosmos of his for the world of e perience, and thus to overcome it. This is what the painter, the poet, the speculative philosopher, and the natural scientists do, each in his own fashion. Aach makes this cosmos and its construction the pivot of his emotional life, in order to find in this way peace and security which he can not find in the narrow whirlpool of personal e perience.

A collection of One Liners ....

"!reat spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds" "I do not know with what weapons .orld .ar ) will be fought, but .orld .ar B will be fought with sticks and stones." "4cience without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." "!od does not play dice with the universe." ">ommon sense is the collection of pre,udices ac3uired by age 'C." "0othing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Aarth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet" "2nly two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I6m not sure about the former."

"Droblems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them." "Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts." "Deace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding." ".hen the solution is simple, !od is answering." ".here the world ceases to be the scene of our personal hopes and wishes, where we face it as free beings admiring, asking and observing, there we enter the realm of "rt and 4cience" ".atch the stars, and from them learn. To the +aster6s honor all must turn, each in its track, without a sound, forever tracing 0ewton6s ground." "Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler." "Dut your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. 4it with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. T%"T6s relativity." "!ravitation can not be held resposible for people falling in love"

Collected Quotes from Albert Einstein

""ny intelligent fool can make things bigger, more comple , and more violent. It takes a touch of genius && and a lot of courage && to move in the opposite direction." "Imagination is more important than knowledge." "!ravitation is not responsible for people falling in love." "I want to know !od6s thoughts- the rest are details." "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income ta ." "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." "The only real valuable thing is intuition." "" person starts to live when he can live outside himself." "I am convinced that %e #!od$ does not play dice." "!od is subtle but he is not malicious." ".eakness of attitude becomes weakness of character." "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough." "The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility." "4ometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing." "4cience without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind." ""nyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." "!reat spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds." "Averything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." ">ommon sense is the collection of pre,udices ac3uired by age eighteen." "4cience is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one6s living at it." "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." "!od does not care about our mathematical difficulties. %e integrates empirically." "The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."

"Technological progress is like an a e in the hands of a pathological criminal." "Deace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding." "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible." ".e can6t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." "Aducation is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school." "The important thing is not to stop 3uestioning. >uriosity has its own reason for e isting." ";o not worry about your difficulties in +athematics. I can assure you mine are still greater." "A3uations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an e3uation is something for eternity." "If " is a success in life, then " e3uals plus y plus 8. .ork is - y is play- and 8 is keeping your mouth shut." "Two things are infinite9 the universe and human stupidity- and I6m not sure about the the universe." ""s far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality." ".hoever undertakes to set himself up as a ,udge of Truth and 1nowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods." "I know not with what weapons .orld .ar III will be fought, but .orld .ar IE will be fought with sticks and stones." "In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep." "The fear of death is the most un,ustified of all fears, for there6s no risk of accident for someone who6s dead." "Too many of us look upon "mericans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the "mericans themselves." "%eroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism && how passionately I hate themF" "0o, this trick won6t work...%ow on earth are you ever going to e plain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love:" "+y 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." "Ges, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our e3uations. But to me our e3uations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. " mathematical e3uation stands forever." "The release of atom power has changed everything e cept our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker." "!reat spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary pre,udices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."

"The most beautiful thing we can e perience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. %e to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead9 his eyes are closed." "" man6s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties- no religious basis is necessary. +an would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." "The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge." "0ow he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. Deople like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." "Gou see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. Gou pull his tail in 0ew Gork and his head is meowing in /os "ngeles. ;o you understand this: "nd radio operates e actly the same way9 you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat." "2ne had to cram all this stuff into one6s mind for the e aminations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final e amination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year." "...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one6s own ever&shifting desires. " finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of ob,ective perception and thought." "%e who ,oyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. %e has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civili8ation should be done away with at once. %eroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is- I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder." "" human being is a part of a whole, called by us HuniverseH, a part limited in time and space. %e e periences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his 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. 2ur task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." "0ot everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." #4ign hanging in Ainstein6s office at Drinceton$