Albert Einstein

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.

War seems to me to be a mean, contemptible thing: I would rather be hacked in pieces than take part in such an abominable business. And yet so high, in spite of everything, is my opinion of the human race that I believe this bogey would have disappeared long ago, had the sound sense of the nations not been systematically corrupted by commercial and political interests acting through the schools and the Press

What the individual can do is to give a fine example, and to have the courage to uphold ethical values .. in a society of cynics.

I have yet to meet a single person from our culture, no matter what his or her educational background, IQ, and specific training, who had powerful transpersonal experiences and continues to subscribe to the materialistic monism of Western science.

What is the meaning of human life, or of organic life altogether? To answer this question at all implies a religion.

Of what significance is one's existence, one is basically unaware. What does a fish know about the water in which he swims all his life? The bitter and the sweet come from outside. The hard from within, from one's own efforts. For the most part I do what my own nature drives me to do. It is embarrassing to earn such respect and love for it.

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

A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of others.

Highly developed spirits often encounter resistance from mediocre minds.

The wonder of nature does not become smaller because one cannot measure it by the standards of human moral and human aims.

I have always disliked the fierce competitive spirit embodied in that highly intellectual game.

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

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

...behind all the discernible laws and connections, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable.

I do not like to state an opinion on a matter unless I know the precise facts.

In one's youth every person and every event appear to be unique. With age one becomes much more aware that similar events recur. Later on, one is less often delighted or surprised, but also less disappointed than in earlier years.

Belief in an external world independent of the perceiving subject is the basis of all natural science.

With fame I become more and more stupid, which of course is a very common phenomenon.

It is true that the grasping of truth is not possible without empirical basis. However, the deeper we penetrate and the more extensive and embracing our theories become the less empirical knowledge is needed to determine those theories.

But nature did not deem it her business to make the discovery of her laws easy for us.

I have remained a simple fellow who asks nothing of the world; only my youth is gone - the enchanting youth that forever walks on air.