A man has to work so hard so that something of his personality stays alive. A tomcat has it so easy, he has only to spray and his presence is there for years on rainy days.
A man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. He sits on a hot stove for a minute, it's longer than any hour. That is relativity.
A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems.
A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas.
A theory is something nobody believes, except the person who made it. An experiment is something everybody believes, except the person who made it.
All of us who are concerned for peace and triumph of reason and justice must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert upon events in the political field.
All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.
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.
Degeneracy follows every autocratic system of violence, for violence inevitably attracts moral inferiors. Time has proven that illustrious tyrants are succeeded by scoundrels.
Every kind of peaceful cooperation among men is primarily based on mutual trust and only secondarily on institutions such as courts of justice and police.
Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect, as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
Everything that can be counted doesn't necessarily count; everything that counts can't necessarily be counted.
God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically.
God does not play dice [with the universe].
God is clever, but not dishonest.
Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love. -Albert Einstein.
Gravity is not responsible for people falling in love.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.
He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.
Human beings are not condemned, because of their biological constitution, to annihilate each other or to be at the mercy of a cruel, self-inflicted fate.
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.
I assert that the cosmic religious experience is the strongest and the noblest driving force behind scientific research.
I don't believe in mathematics.
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
I know quite certainly that I myself have no special talent; curiosity, obsession and dogged endurance, combined with self-criticism have brought me to my ideas.
I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.
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.
I want to know God's thoughts. The rest are details.
If A equal success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.
If I could remember the names of all these particles I'd be a botanist.
If my theory of relativity is proven correct, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.
If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be could reserach, now would it?
If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
Information is not knowledge.
It gives me great pleasure indeed to see the stubbornness of an incorrigible nonconformist warmly acclaimed.
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.
It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.
It is the theory that decides what can be observed.
It should be possible to explain the laws of physics to a barmaid.
It stands to the everlasting credit of science that by acting on the human mind it has overcome man's insecurity before himself and before nature.
Logics will get you from A to B, Imagination will take you everywhere.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
Morality is of the highest importance - but for us, not for God.
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.
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.
Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.
Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.
Occurrences in this domain are beyond the reach of exact prediction because of the variety of factors in operation, not because of any lack of order in nature.
One must not attempt to justify them, but rather to sense their nature simply and clearly.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.
Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury--to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for every one, best for both the body and the mind.
Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.
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.
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
Relativity applies to physics, not ethics.
Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory.
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
Sit next to a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. Sit on a red-hot stove for a minute, it seems like an hour. That's relativity.
Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.
The American lives even more for his goals, for the future, than the European. Life for him is always becoming, never being.
The bitter and the sweet come from the outside, the hard from within, from one's own efforts.
The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.
The distinctions separating the social classes are false; in the last analysis they rest on force.
The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.
The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.
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.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.
The next World War will be fought with stones.
The only real valuable thing is intuition. -Albert Einstein.
The process of scientific discovery is, in effect, a continual flight from wonder.
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. -Albert Einstein.
This heroism at command, this senseless violence, this accursed bombast of patriotism--how intensely I despise them!
To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.
To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.
To understand the world one must not be worrying about one's self.
Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe.
We cannot despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings.
We must find a way, or we will make one.
What is this frog and mouse battle among the mathematicians?
When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute-and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity.
When forced to summarize the general theory of relativity in one sentence: Time and space and graviton have no separate existence from matter.
When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come close to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.
When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity.
When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, you think it's only a minute. But when you sit on a hot stove for a minute, you think it's two hours. That's relativity.
Why should I remember anything if I can just look it up?
You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.