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

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.

Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.

There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.

Education is not the learning of facts; it’s rather the training of the mind to think.

Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.

Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than the one with all the facts.

Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.

I am thankful for all of those who said NO to me. It’s because of them I’m doing it myself.

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

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.

The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.

Creativity is intelligence having fun.

I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.

There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there.

Truth is what stands the test of experience.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.

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

A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?

You can’t blame gravity for falling in love.

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.

What is right is not always popular, and what is popular is not always right.

Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT’S relativity.

Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical
equation stands forever.

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

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.

We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.

The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.

God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically.

A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings 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.

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.

Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.

The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking…the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.

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.

No, this trick won’t work…How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?

Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.

Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.

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

In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.

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

Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.

I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice.

I want to know God’s thoughts; the rest are details.

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

We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.

The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has been before.

Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.

Nature shows us only the tail of the lion. But there is no doubt in my mind that the lion belongs with it even if he cannot reveal himself to the eye all at once because of his huge dimension.

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.

You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I’ve only ever had one.

Reading after a certain age diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there’s no risk of accident for someone who’s dead.

Most teachers waste their time by asking questions that are intended to discover what a pupil does not know, whereas the true art of questioning is to discover what the pupil does know or is capable of knowing.

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.

Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.

Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today’s events.

The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm, but because of those who look at it without doing anything.

Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

To keep your balance, you must keep moving.

Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.

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

The only thing that you absolutely have to know is the location of the library.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science.

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

Never lose a holy curiosity.

The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it.

The human spirit must prevail over technology.

The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.

The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from the self.

I am a deeply religious nonbeliever.

The only real valuable thing is intuition.

The environment is everything that isn’t me.

Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one’s living at it.

We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.

Science can flourish only in an atmosphere of free speech.

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.

I never worry about the future. It comes soon enough.

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.

A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.

The measure of a man is what he does with power.

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.

Do a little more of what you want to do every day, until your idea becomes what’s real.

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.

It’s not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.

The important thing is to not stop questioning.

Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.

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

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.

We experience the universe as separate from ourselves because of the optical delusion of our senses.

Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.

Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics; I can assure you that mine are still greater.

The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.

I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.

If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.

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

Education is the progressive realization of our ignorance.

The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.

It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.

A ship is always safe at the shore, but that is not what it is built for.

A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.

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

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.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.

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

Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.

You never fail until you stop trying.

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.

Information is not knowledge.

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.

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

The only source of knowledge is experience.

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

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

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value

Imagination is more important than knowledge.