Inspirational Quotes by Albert Einstein — Words of Wisdom for Daily Success

“Time is an illusion.”

“Know where to find the information and how to use it. That’s the secret to success.”

“Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.”

“Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury - to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best for both the body and the mind.”

“I maintain that the cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest motive for scientific research.”

“How can cosmic religious feeling be communicated from one person to another, if it can give rise to no definite notion of a God and no theology? In my view, it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are receptive to it.”

“Those whose acquaintance with scientific research is derived chiefly from its practical results easily develop a completely false notion of the mentality of the men who, surrounded by a skeptical world, have shown the way to kindred spirits scattered wide through the world and through the centuries. Only one who has devoted his life to similar ends can have a vivid realization of what has inspired these men and given them the strength to remain true to their purpose in spite of countless failures. It is cosmic religious feeling that gives a man such strength. A contemporary has said, not unjustly, that in this materialistic age of ours the serious scientific workers are the only profoundly religious people.”

“It is this mythical, or rather symbolic, content of the religious traditions which is likely to come into conflict with science. This occurs whenever this religious stock of ideas contains dogmatically fixed statements on subjects which belong in the domain of science.”

“A man's ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.”

“That which is impenetrable to us really exists. Behind the secrets of nature remains something subtle, intangible, and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion.”

“The religious geniuses of all ages have been distinguished by this kind of religious feeling, which knows no dogma and no God conceived in man's image; so that there can be no church whose central teachings are based on it. Hence it is precisely among the heretics of every age that we find men who were filled with this highest kind of religious feeling and were in many cases regarded by their contemporaries as atheists, sometimes also as saints. Looked at in this light, men like Democritus, Francis of Assisi, and Spinoza are closely akin to one another.”

“The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of justice and the desire for personal independence -- these are the features of the Jewish tradition which make me thank my stars that I belong to it.”

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

“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.”

“All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.”

“It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.”

“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.”

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

“Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation. For they are us, our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life.”

“Learn to be happy through the good fortunes and joys of your friends and not through senseless quarrels. If you allow these natural feelings to blossom within you, your every burden will seem lighter or more bearable to you, you will find your own way through patience, and you will spread joy everywhere.”

“A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness.”

“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.”

“In scientific thinking are always present elements of poetry. Science and music requires a thought homogeneous.”

“The right to search for the truth implies also a duty; one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be the truth.”

“I believe that Gandhi’s views were the most enlightened of all the political men in our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit: not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by non-participation in anything you believe is evil.”

“If one tries to navigate unknown waters one runs the risk of shipwreck”

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”

“The more I study science, the more I believe in God.”

“Common to all these types is the anthropomorphic character of their conception of God. In general, only individuals of exceptional endowments, and exceptionally high-minded communities, rise to any considerable extent above this level. But there is a third stage of religious experience which belongs to all of them, even though it is rarely found in a pure form: I shall call it cosmic religious feeling. It is very difficult to elucidate this feeling to anyone who is entirely without it, especially as there is no anthropomorphic conception of God corresponding to it.”

“In the view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognize, there are yet people who says there is no God. But what makes me really angry is that they quote me for support of such views. (The Expanded Quotable Einstein, Princeton University, page 214)”

“I don't try to imagine a personal God; it suffices to stand in awe at the structure of the world, insofar as it allows our inadequate senses to appreciate it.”

“The word 'God' is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation, no matter how subtle, can (for me) change this.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I would not think that philosophy and reason themselves will be man's guide in the foreseeable future; however, they will remain the most beautiful sanctuary they have always been for the select few.”

“If tomorrow were never to come, it would not be worth living today.”

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

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.”

“Even on the most solemn occasions I got away without wearing socks and hid that lack of civilization in high boots”

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

“I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking”

“Black holes are where God divided by zero.”

“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.”

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”

“Life isn't worth living, unless it is lived for someone else.”

“Dancers are the athletes of God.”

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

“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.”

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

“Love is a better master than duty.”

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

“Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.”

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

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

“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.”

“God always takes the simplest way.”

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”

“The only real valuable thing is intuition.”

“Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.”

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

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

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

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

“When the solution is simple, God is answering.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

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

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

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

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”

“In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.”

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

“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.”

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

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”

“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”