Inspirational Quotes by Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)

Inspirational Quotations by Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) was a German-born American theoretical physicist, humanist, and philosopher. Regarded as one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century, he is best known for revolutionizing twentieth-century physics with his contributions to relativity, photoelectric effect, and the unification of the laws of physics. A passionate humanist, he advocated peace, political freedom, and social justice.

Born to Jewish parents in Ulm, Germany, Einstein started studying mathematics at school. He was an average student, and his teachers predicted that he would never amount to much in life. He did not succeed in his first attempt at the entrance exam to a technical college at age 16.

Einstein barely made it through the Zurich Polytechnic Institute and could not get a job in several science fields. He eventually joined the Swiss Patents Office in Bern as an examiner of patent applications and wrote scientific papers during his time off.

Einstein took Swiss nationality in 1901. In 1905, at age 26, he published four papers on the ‘Special Theory of Relativity’ in the German journal Annalen der Physik. These papers broke new ground in physics and included the legendary relation between mass and energy: E = mc-squared. In 1916, he published his work on the General Theory of Relativity. However, it was his work on the photoelectric effect that won Einstein the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Einstein’s theories of special and general relativity eventually united matter with energy and space with time. His work also helped usher in the age of atomic energy and weapons.

Einstein’s many biographies include Walter Isaacson’s Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007.) Einstein wrote The World As I See It (1934) and Cosmic Religion and Other Opinions (1931; with Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw.)

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Albert Einstein

Inspirational Quotes by Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)

If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Courage, Ideas

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Friends and Friendship, Nature, Life, Questions, Tomorrow, Hope, Learning

Only a life lived for others is a life worth while.
—Albert Einstein

One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community.
—Albert Einstein

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.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Intuition

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Attitude, Perception, Reality, One liners, Philosophy

Some recent work by E. Fermi and L. Szilard, which has been communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future. Certain aspects of the situation seem to call for watchfulness and, if necessary, quick action on the part of the Administration. This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable—though much less certain—that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat or exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory. However, such bombs might very well prove to be too heavy for transportation by air.
—Albert Einstein

Never regard study as a duty but as an enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the spirit for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which your later works belong.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Education, Beauty, Learning

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Creativity

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Mistakes

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Civilization, Technology, Humanity

Although words exist for the most part for the transmission of ideas, there are some which produce such violent disturbance in our feelings that the role they play in the transmission of ideas is lost in the background.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Ideas

Many of the things you can count, don’t count. Many of the things you can’t count, really count.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Money, Wisdom

Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Knowledge

Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty, there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.
—Albert Einstein

A successful man is he who receives a great deal from his fellow men, usually incomparably more than corresponds to his service to them. The value of a man, however, should be seen in what he gives, and not in what he is able to receive.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Success

Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men with the hope they will change. Invariably they are both disappointed.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Marriage

A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Science

The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Giving

Solitude is painful when one is young, but delightful when one is more mature.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Solitude

Intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Intelligence, Genius, Intellectuals

The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Understanding

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Miracles

In order to be an immaculate member of a flock of sheep, one must above all be a sheep oneself.
—Albert Einstein

In the matter of physics, the first lessons should contain nothing but what is experimental and interesting to see. A pretty experiment is in itself often more valuable than twenty formulae extracted from our minds.
—Albert Einstein

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious—the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.
—Albert Einstein

If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Good

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: One liners, Art

To understand the world one must not be worrying about one’s self.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: World

Nothing happens until something moves.
—Albert Einstein

Enjoying the joys of others and suffering with them—these are the best guides for man.
—Albert Einstein

All meaningful and lasting change starts first in your imagination and then works its way out. Imagination is more important than knowledge. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Change, Action, Life, Imagination

You cannot solve the problem with the same kind of thinking that has created the problem.
—Albert Einstein

Learn from yesterday: Live for today: Hope ‘w.
—Albert Einstein

The search for truth is more precious than its possession.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Wisdom, Truth

How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Humanity, Cooperation

Small is the number of them that see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Feelings

Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: it transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural & spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.
—Albert Einstein

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Value

Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.
—Albert Einstein
Topics: Shopping