"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."

"If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."

"Feeling and longing are the motive forces behind all human endeavor and human creations."

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."

"When the solution is simple, God is answering."

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow."

"One may say the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."

"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."

"Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value."

"Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value."

"I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind."

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create."

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

"Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means."

"Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them."

"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."

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

"God always takes the simplest way."

"The only real valuable thing is intuition."

"A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be."

"In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity."

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."

"Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds."

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

"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."

"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 universe."

"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."

"If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself."

"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."

"Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere."

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

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."

"I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university."

"Never memorize something that you can look up."

"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."

"A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it."

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."

"Any fool can know. The point is to understand."

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

"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious."

"A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling 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."

"Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value."

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day"

"The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking."

"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy."

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science."

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

"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."

"You never fail until you stop trying."

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."

"The measure of intelligence is the ability to change."

"It is not that I'm so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer."

"Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."

"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."

"Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it."

"Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile."

"Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts."

"Imagination is the highest form of research."

"However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship."

"I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity."

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."

"God does not play dice with the universe."

"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible."

"Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible."

"The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library."

"You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created."

"I never think of the future - it comes soon enough."

"What a sad era when it is easier to smash an atom than a prejudice."

"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."

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

"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."

"Student: Dr. Einstein, Aren't these the same questions as last year's [physics] final exam"

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity."

"From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that we are here for the sake of each other - above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received."

"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social enviroment. Most people are incapable of forming such opinions."

"A true genius admits that he/she knows nothing."

"If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions."

"Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."

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

"If there is any religion that could respond to the needs of modern science, it would be Buddhism."

"If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed."

"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war."

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

"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."

"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."

"If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it."

"I believe in intuitions and inspirations...I sometimes FEEL that I am right. I do not KNOW that I am."

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead —his eyes are closed. The insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness."

"The Revolution introduced me to art, and in turn, art introduced me to the Revolution!"

"Life is a preparation for the future; and the best preparation for the future is to live as if there were none."

"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."

"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."

"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, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."

"Your question is the most difficult in the world. It is not a question I can answer simply with yes or no. I am not an Atheist. I do not know if I can define myself as a Pantheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. May I not reply with a parable? The human mind, no matter how highly trained, cannot grasp the universe. We are in the position of a little child, entering a huge library whose walls are covered to the ceiling with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written those books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious order, which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of the human mind, even the greatest and most cultured, toward God. We see a universe marvelously arranged, obeying certain laws, but we understand the laws only dimly. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that sways the constellations. I am fascinated by Spinoza's Pantheism. I admire even more his contributions to modern thought. Spinoza is the greatest of modern philosophers, because he is the first philosopher who deals with the soul and the body as one, not as two separate things."

"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."

"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."

"The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives."

"Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population."

"We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them"

"Somebody who only reads newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else."

"A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."

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

"I want to know God's thoughts - the rest are mere details."

"Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death."

"One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike -- and yet it is the most precious thing we have."

"The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with joy are goodness, beauty, and truth."

"The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know."

"Information is not knowledge."

"If I were to remain silent, I'd be guilty of complicity."

"We know from daily life that we exist for other people first of all, for whose smiles and well-being our own happiness depends."

"Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another."

"Creativity is intelligence having fun."

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

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

"If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself."

"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."

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution."

"Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted."

"To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, require creative imagination and marks real advance in science."

"Once you stop learning, you start dying."

"I must be willing to give up what I am in order to become what I will be."

"When you trip over love, it is easy to get up. But when you fall in love, it is impossible to stand again."

"It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure."

"A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?"

"Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth."

"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."

"We all know that light travels faster than sound. That's why certain people appear bright until you hear them speak."

"The best way to cheer yourself is to cheer somebody else up."

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

"Everything must be made as simple as possible. But not simpler."

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

"Time is an illusion."

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day."

"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."

"Love is a better master than duty."

"Black holes are where God divided by zero."

"Genius is 1% talent and 99% hard work..."

"What is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right."

"What is right is not always popular, and what is popular is not always right."

"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."

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

"All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree."

"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge."

"You can’t blame gravity for falling in love."

"I love to travel, but I hate to arrive."

"The moon does not simply disappear when we are not looking at it."

"The only source of knowledge is experience."

"I am thankful for all of those who said NO to me. It’s because of them I’m doing it myself."

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

"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."

"A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future."

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."

"Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than the one with all the facts."

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning."

"Nothing truly valuable arises from ambition or from a mere sense of duty; it stems rather from love and devotion towards men and towards objective things."

"Truth is what stands the test of experience."

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

"The only way to escape the corruptible effect of praise is to go on working."

"Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking."

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex….. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction."

"There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there."

"Education is not the learning of facts; it’s rather the training of the mind to think."

"All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual."

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly."

"No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong."

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new."

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity"

"I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right."

"There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle."

"A ship is always safe at shore but that is not what it’s built for."

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."

"Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations."

"The years of anxious searching in the dark, with their intense longing, their alternations of confidence and exhaustion, and final emergence into light—only those who have experienced it can understand that."

"Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it."

"Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds."

"The search for truth is more precious than its possession"

"If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough."

"The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive."

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

"Most teachers waste their time by asking questions that are intended to discover what a pupil does not know, whereas the true art of questioning is to discover what the pupil does know or is capable of knowing."

"As a human being, one has been endowed with just enough intelligence to be able to see clearly how utterly inadequate that intelligence is when confronted with what exists."

"Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools."

"It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer."

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I am not sure about the universe."

"I very rarely think in words at all. A thought comes, and I may try to express it in words afterwards."

"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."

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

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

"Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today’s events."

"Weak people revenge. Strong people forgive. Intelligent people ignore."

"You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I’ve only ever had one."

"A human being is part of a whole called by us the universe."

"Nothing happens until something moves."

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

"Three rules of work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."

"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."

"I’d rather be an optimist and a fool than a pessimist and right."

"The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm but because of those who look at it without doing anything."

"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions."

"I am by heritage a Jew, by citizenship a Swiss, and by makeup a human being, and only a human being, without any special attachment to any state or national entity whatsoever."

"In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep."

"Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person."

"Combinatory play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought."