From curiosity and life to happiness and success, dip in and out of this collection of inspirational Albert Einstein quotes.
I always feel a bit better after I’ve read some Einstein quotes — it’s just nice to reconfirm that failure is part of success, imagination is as important as knowledge and that common sense is a set of prejudices acquired by age 18.
75 inspirational, motivational and thought provoking Albert Einstein quotes
Imagination
“Imagination is the preview to life’s coming attractions.”
“Logic will get you from A to B; imagination will get you everywhere.”
“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
“When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking.”
Knowledge
“Information is not knowledge.”
“If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.”
“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”
Intuition
“The only real valuable thing is intuition.”
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
Compassion
“Our task must be to free ourselves… by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and it’s beauty.”
Money
“I am absolutely convinced that no wealth in the world can help humanity forward, even in the hands of the most devoted worker in this cause. The example of great and pure personages is the only thing that can lead us to find ideas and noble deeds. Money only appeals to selfishness and always irresistibly tempts its owner to abuse it. Can anyone imagine Moses, Jesus or Gandhi with the moneybags of Carnegie?”
Thoughts
“I admit thoughts influence the body.”
Nature
“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
Rational thought
“I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking”
Simplicity
“Out of clutter, find simplicity.”
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
Common sense
“Common sense is a set of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”
“Common sense is what tells us the earth is flat.”
Science
“The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.”
Problem solving
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
“If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”
Curiosity
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
“I have no special talent; I am only passionately curious.”
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the the universe.”
“As 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.”
“Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.”
“…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 one’s own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought.”
Intelligence and genius
“Intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them.”
“A true genius admits that he/she knows nothing.”
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
“Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one’s living at it.”
“It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.”
“The difference between genius and stupidity is; genius has its limits.”
“Genius is 1% talent and 99% percent hard work…”
Creativity
“Creativity is knowing how to hide your sources”
“Creativity is intelligence having fun.”
Happiness
“The best way to cheer yourself is to cheer somebody else up.”
“I’d rather be an optimist and a fool than a pessimist and right.”
“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.”
God and religion
“I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice.”
“Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”
“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.”
“If there is any religion that could respond to the needs of modern science, it would be Buddhism.”
“Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.”
“God does not play dice with the universe.”
“I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own — a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotisms.”
Vegetarianism
“It is my view that the vegetarian manner of living, by its purely physical effect on the human temperament, would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind.”
People
“A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences 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. Our 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.”
“I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.”
“Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.”
“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”
“A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.”
Time
“Time is an illusion.”
Life
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep the balance you must keep moving.”
“What is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right.”
“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”
“You have to learn the rules of the game and then play better than anyone else.”
“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.”
“The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.”
Reality
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
Music
“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.”
Photography
“A photograph never grows old. You and I change, people change all through the months and years but a photograph always remains the same. How nice to look at a photograph of mother or father taken many years ago. You see them as you remember them. But as people live on, they change completely. That is why I think a photograph can be kind.”
Relativity
“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.”
Success
“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”
“If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.”
“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
Marriage
“Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men with the hope they will change. Invariably they are both disappointed.”
Peace
“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can be only kept by understanding.”
“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”
Insanity
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Opinions
“Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are incapable of forming such opinions.”
Prejudice
“What a sad era when it is easier to smash an atom than a prejudice.”
Recent Comments