Albert Einstein

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.

The grand aim of all science is to cover the greatest number of empirical facts by logical deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms.

Morality is of the highest importance - but for us, not for God.

If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.

In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.

Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.

Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.

It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.

The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.

I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.

I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two-thirds of the people of the earth will be killed.

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

The attempt to combine wisdom and power has only rarely been successful and then only for a short while.

Mozart's music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner beauty of the universe.

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.

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.

Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.

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.

Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift.

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.

Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them!

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.

Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity.

The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.

If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.

The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.

Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.

Without deep reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.

You can't blame gravity for falling in love.

Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.

Love is a better teacher than duty.

People love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results.

I love to travel, but hate to arrive.

Force always attracts men of low morality.

The hardest thing to understand in the world is the income tax.

It gives me great pleasure indeed to see the stubbornness of an incorrigible nonconformist warmly acclaimed.

Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.

A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.