Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone.
God may be subtle, but he isn't plain mean.
The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.
I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.
True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.
Peace cannot be kept by force it can only be achieved by understanding.
If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.
fear, being good & hope
You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.
An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.
Information is not knowledge.
Perfection of means and confusion of ends seem to characterize our age.
No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right a single experiment can prove me wrong.
If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.
Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity.
The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.
Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.
Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.
Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.
I am a deeply religious nonbeliever - this is a somewhat new kind of religion.
True religion is real living living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness.
The environment is everything that isn't me.
The hardest thing to understand in the world is the income tax.
Confusion of goals and perfection of means seems, in my opinion, to characterize our age.
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.
Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.
The only source of knowledge is experience.
I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation and is but a reflection of human frailty.
I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.
The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.
You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I've only ever had one.
It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.
I shall never believe that God plays dice with the world.
You can't blame gravity for falling in love.
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?
People love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results.
All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.
We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.
Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.
Without deep reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.
Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.
The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead.
The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
It gives me great pleasure indeed to see the stubbornness of an incorrigible nonconformist warmly acclaimed.
One strength of the communist system of the East is that it has some of the character of a religion and inspires the emotions of a religion.
Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it.
The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.
The attempt to combine wisdom and power has only rarely been successful and then only for a short while.
Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized.
I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.
We should take care not to make the intellect our god it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.
It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely.
Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.
The devil has put a penalty on all things we enjoy in life. Either we suffer in health or we suffer in soul or we get fat.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
God does not play dice.
Time is what prevents everything from happening at once.
Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.
Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.
A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin what else does a man need to be happy?
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.
The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.
Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift.
It was the experience of mystery - even if mixed with fear - that engendered religion.
There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there.
He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead his eyes are closed.
Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.
If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.
art, experience & science
Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.
You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.
Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.
Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.
The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.
When the solution is simple, God is answering.
Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them!
Force always attracts men of low morality.
It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.
The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.
The man of science is a poor philosopher.
Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.
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.
It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.
Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.