In so far as the statements of geometry speak about reality, they are not certain, and in so far as they are certain, they do not speak about reality.
http://www.bartleby.com/66/83/18583.html
Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
The most beautiful and deepest experience a man can have is the sense of the mysterious. It is the underlying principle of religion as well as all serious endeavor in art and science. He who never had this experience seems to me, if not dead, then at least blind. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is a something that our mind cannot grasp and whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly and as a feeble reflection, this is religiousness.
In this sense I am religious. To me it suffices to wonder at these secrets and to attempt humbly to grasp with my mind a mere image of the lofty structure of all that there is.
Source speech
The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For 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 the United States is closely connected with this.
Later published as "Some Notes on my American Impressions" in The World As I See It (1949)
Wer es unternimmt, auf dem Gebiet der Wahrheit und der Erkenntnis als Autoritat aufzutreten, scheitert am Gelachter der Gotter.
[Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.]
In Essays Presented to Leo Baeck on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday (publ. 1954). Also quoted from the 1977 ed. of Mein Weltbild (1949) (citation). Essays also sometimes cited 1952.
Alternate translation: "He who endeavors to present himself as an authority in matters of truth and cognition, will be wrecked by the laughter of the gods."
A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hopes of reward after death.
Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.
Also attributed (usually as "coincidences are ...") to Doris Lessing.
No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.
As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.
Date is cited in a couple of places online as 1954, but with no further information.
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 minds.
Recalled on his death.
Strange is our situation here upon the earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.
quoted from James A. Haught, ed., 2000 Years of Disbelief
The world is a dangerous place to live in, not because of the people that do evil; but because of the people that stand by and let them do it.
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.
I would rather be an optimist and a fool than be a pessimist and correct.
This problem will not be solved by the same minds that created it.
I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.
Recalled on his death.
God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically.
quoted in Quest by L. Infeld (1942)
Try not to become a success, but rather try to become a man of value.
Quoted by LIFE magazine (2 May 1955)
The most important human endeavor is striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depends on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to our lives.
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.
Reader's Digest, Oct 1977
Common sense is that layer of prejudices which we acquire before we are sixteen.
quoted in Mathematics, Queen and Servant of the Sciences by E.T. Bell
A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.
Trans. Sonja Bargmann
Perfection of means and confusion of ends seem to characterize our age.
We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it.
Einstein Archive 59-1013
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.
http://www.if.ufrgs.br/einstein/frases.html
People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.
Quoted in Science and the Search for God Disturbing the Universe (1979) by Freeman Dyson. Probable source of the common attribution: "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
Science can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with the aspiration toward truth and understanding. This source of feeling, however, springs from the sphere of religion...The situation may be expressed by an image: science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind
http://www.bartleby.com/73/1662.html
Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible concatenations, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in point of fact, religious.
Response to atheist Alfred Kerr's dinner party query, "I hear that you are supposed to be deeply religious." Quoted in The Diary of a Cosmopolitan by H. G. Kessler (1971).
Raffiniert ist der Herr Gott, aber boshaft ist er nicht.
[Subtle is God, but malicious He is not.]
Source. Later inscribed in Fine Hall, Princeton University. Quoted in Einstein, ch. 14, R.W. Clark (1973). Einstein in 1946 gave a looser translation: “God is slick, but he ain’t mean.”
Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.
It's not established this was original to Einstein.
Sometimes quoted in reverse: "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
That a man can take pleasure in marching in formation to the strains of a band is enough to make me despise him. He has only been given his big brain by mistake; a backbone was all he needed.
Essay also known as "Mein Weltbild" or "My Worldview." Source essay.
Alternate translation: "He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice."
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. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man.
Essay also known as "Mein Weltbild" or "My Worldview." Source essay.
Alternate translations:
Also quoted in Einstein: His Life and Times, ch. 12, sct. 5, Philipp Frank (1947).
A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received.
Essay also known as "Mein Weltbild" or "My Worldview." Source essay.
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