Yossarius's Dungeon
Quotations of Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)


If someday, when I'm dead and gone, if I'm remembered as being one-half the man Albert Einstein was (and provided I'm somehow able to be aware of it), I'll be truly content. As brilliant a scientist he was, his true brilliance shown through in his efforts in politics and personal philosophy. He's is the only person I could point at and honestly say, "He's my hero."

• What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world.


• Imagination is more important than knowledge.


• It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.


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


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


• Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.


• Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish.


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


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


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


• 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.


• Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.


• Generations to come will find it difficult to believe that a man such as Gandhi ever walked the face of this earth.


• Not until we dare to regard ourselves as a nation, not until we respect ourselves, can we gain the esteem of others, or rather only then will it come of its own accord.


• A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling 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 enhance all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty


• I never think of the future - it comes soon enough


• The important thing is not to stop questioning


• The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.


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


• The mere formulation of a problem is far more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skills. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science.


• 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.


• The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.


• Imagination is more important than knowledge, for knowledge is limited while imagination embraces the entire world.


• Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.


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


• If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.


• If I had only known. I would have become a locksmith.


• The important thing is not to stop questioning.


• In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

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