Albert
Einstein was a genius. Mr. Einstein received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics
"for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of
the law of the photoelectric effect.
"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is
comprehensible."
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we
created them."
"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in
school."
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason
for existing."
"Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are
still greater."
"Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an
equation is something for eternity."
"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."
"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."
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV
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 unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of
accident for someone who's dead."
"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."
"Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that
goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"
"No, this trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms
of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?"
"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."
"Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our
equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only
a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever."
"The release of atom power has changed everything except 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."
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The
latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to
hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source
of all true art and all 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."
"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education,
and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man 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."
"Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means
nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction
between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."
"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail
in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And
radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them
there. The only difference is that there is no cat."
"One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether
one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after
I had passed the final examination, 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 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."
"He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt.
He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would
surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once.
Heroism 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."
"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."
"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be
counted counts."