Albert Einstein Quotations and Epigrams on "Things Mysterious"
Compiled and Edited by Michael R. Burch

There are two ways to live your life -- one is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.

People do not grow old no matter how long we live. We never cease to stand like curious children before the great Mystery into which we were born.

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

The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

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

The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.

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

Everything is determined by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust -- we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.

Why should I remember anything if I can just look it up?

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

I assert that the cosmic religious experience is the strongest and the noblest driving force behind scientific research.

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.

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

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

God does not play dice with the universe.

God is subtle but he is not malicious.

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

God is clever, but not dishonest.

Morality is of the highest importance -- but for us, not for God.

Human beings can attain a worthy and harmonious life only if they are able to rid themselves, within the limits of human nature, of the striving for the wish fulfillment of material kinds. The goal is to raise the spiritual values of society.

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.

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

The process of scientific discovery is, in effect, a continual flight from wonder.

Einstein's Uncommon Sense 

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

Sit next to a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. Sit on a red-hot stove for a minute, it seems like an hour. That's relativity.

He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.

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

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

Only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the former.

The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil; but because of the people who don't do anything about it.

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.

It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.

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

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

Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.

Politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

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

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

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

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

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

Information is not knowledge.

I don't believe in mathematics.

All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.

If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be research, now would it?

Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds.

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.

To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.

If my theory of relativity is proven correct, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.

If I could remember the names of all these particles I'd be a botanist.

How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?

The life of the individual has meaning only insofar as it aids in making the life of every living thing nobler and more beautiful. Life is sacred, that is to say, it is the supreme value, to which all other values are subordinate.

Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this county is closely related with this.

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