“I fully agree with you about the significance and educational value of methodology as well as history and philosophy of science. So many people today - and even professional scientists - seem to me like somebody who has seen thousands of trees but has never seen a forest. A knowledge of the historic and philosophical background gives that kind of independence from prejudices of his generation from which most scientists are suffering. This independence created by philosophical insight is - in my opinion - the mark of distinction between a mere artisan or specialist and a real seeker after truth.
―
Albert Einstein
“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.”
―
Albert Einstein
“When I was young I found out that the big toe always ends up making a hole in a sock.
So I stopped wearing socks.”
―
Albert Einstein
“The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure.”
―
Albert Einstein
“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.”
―
Albert Einstein
“Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience.”
―
Albert Einstein
“In the temple of science are many mansions, and various indeed are they that dwell therein and the motives that have led them thither. Many take to science out of a joyful sense of superior intellectual power; science is their own special sport to which they look for vivid experience and the satisfaction of ambition; many others are to be found in the temple who have offered the products of their brains on this altar for purely utilitarian purposes. Were [someone to] drive all the people belonging to these two categories out of the temple, the assemblage would be seriously depleted, but there would still be some men, of both present and past times, left inside. Our Planck is one of them, and that is why we love him.”
―
Albert Einstein
“There are two important things for full success in life:
1. Don´t tell everything you know.”
―
Albert Einstein
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
―
Albert Einstein
“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”
―
Albert Einstein
“The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.”
―
Albert Einstein
“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”
―
Albert Einstein
