The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed to the empty. The trite objects of human efforts — possessions, outward success, luxury—have always seemed to me contemptible.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the importance of ideals like kindness, beauty, and truth as guiding lights in life.
In this quote, Albert Einstein emphasizes that the principles of kindness, beauty, and truth have provided him with the strength and optimism needed to navigate life. He argues that a connection with like-minded individuals and engagement with the world around us is vital, and he sees superficial pursuits like wealth and luxury as unworthy and empty compared to the deeper values that inspire and uplift the human spirit.
In practice
This quote can be used in a motivational speech about personal values.
I cannot then believe in this concept of an anthropomorphic God who has the powers of interfering with these natural laws. As I said before, the most beautiful and most profound religious emotion that we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. And this mysticality is the power of all true science.
If I would follow your advice and Jesus could perceive it, he, as a Jewish teacher, surely would not approve of such behavior.
I want to know all Gods thoughts; all the rest are just details.
In the middle of adversity there is great opportunity.
I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two-thirds of the people of the earth will be killed.
To me the worst thing seems to be a school principally to work with methods of fear, force and artificial authority. Such treatment destroys the sound sentiments, the sincerity and the self-confidence of pupils and produces a subservient subject.
Tardiness often robs us opportunity, and the dispatch of our forces.
Pay now, play later; play now, pay later.
One's doing well if age improves even slightly one's capacity to hold on to that vital truism: "This too shall pass.
Use truth as your anvil, nonviolence as your hammer and anything that does not stand the test when it is brought to the anvil of truth and hammered with nonviolence, reject it.
Don't be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible.
I often tease young people about their concern for how they look; more important is inner beauty - compassion, affection and respect.
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