“I do not at all believe in human freedom in the philosophical sense... Schopenhauer’s saying, ‘A man can do what he wants, but not will what he wants,’ has been a very real inspiration to me since my youth; it has been a continual consolation in the face of life’s hardships, my own and others’, and an unfailing wellspring of tolerance. This realization mercifully mitigates the easily paralyzing sense of responsibility and prevents us from taking ourselves and other people too seriously; it is conducive to a view of life which, in part, gives humour its due.”
―
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
“The supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a simple datum of experience.”
―
Albert Einstein
“The health of society thus depends quite as much on the independence of the individuals composing it as on their close political cohesion.”
―
Albert Einstein
“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”
―
Albert Einstein
“A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.”
―
Albert Einstein
“In scientific thinking are always present elements of poetry. Science and music requires a thought homogeneous.”
―
Albert Einstein
“That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.”
―
Albert Einstein
“Morality is of the highest importance -- but for us, not for God.”
―
Albert Einstein
“There is far too great a disproportion between what one is and what others think one is, or at least what they say they think one is.”
―
Albert Einstein
“Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth”
―
Albert Einstein
“Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish.”
―
Albert Einstein
