530 quotes
People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.
I want to know God's thoughts — the rest are mere details.
I am very conscious of the fact that our feelings and strivings are often contradictory and obscure and that they cannot be expressed in easy and simple formulas.
Why Socialism? (1949)
Since our inner experiences consist of reproductions and combinations of sensory impressions, the concept of a soul without a body seem to me to be empty and devoid of meaning.
Albert Einstein: The Human Side p. 40 - 5 Feb 1921 (1979)
This is hard to make clear to those who do not experience it, since it does not involve an anthropomorphic idea of God; the individual feels the vanity of human desires and aims, and the nobility and marvelous order which are revealed in nature and in the world of thought.
Religion and Science (1930)
A wonder of such nature I experienced as a child of 4 or 5 years, when my father showed me a compass.
Autobiographical Notes (1949)
I never failed in mathematics. Before I was fifteen I had mastered differential and integral calculus.
How much do I love that noble man
More than I could tell with words
I fear though he'll remain alone
With a holy halo of his own.
Poem by Einstein on Spinoza (1920)
Dear mother! Today a joyful notice. H. A. Lorentz has telegraphed me that the English expeditions have really proven the deflection of light at the sun.
Postcard to his mother Pauline Einstein (1919)
No fairer destiny could be allotted to any physical theory, than that it should of itself point out the way to the introduction of a more comprehensive theory, in which it lives on as a limiting case.
Über die spezielle und die allgemeine Relativitätstheorie (1920)
Every reference-body (co-ordinate system) has its own particular time; unless we are told the reference-body to which the statement of time refers, there is no meaning in a statement of the time of an event.
Relativity: The Special and General Theory (1920)
One strength of the communist system of the East is that it has some of the character of a religion and inspires the emotions of a religion. Unless the concept of peace based on law gathers behind it the force and zeal of a religion, it can hardly hope to succeed.
I advocate world government because I am convinced that there is no other possible way of eliminating the most terrible danger in which man has ever found himself. The objective of avoiding total destruction must have priority over any other objective.
Ch. 27 A reply to the Soviet scientists (1948)
Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the "old one." I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice.
Those who are led should not be driven, and they should be allowed to choose their leader.
What I Believe (1930)
"Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it; he who doesn't, pays it."
It is an irony of fate that myself have been the recipient of excessive admiration and reverence from my fellow-beings, through no fault or merit of my own.
The only thing I can say is this: Only through permanent and faithful cooperation between the United States, Great Britain, and Russia can a lasting peace be secured.
It is feared that if many H-bombs are used there will be universal death, sudden only for a minority, but for the majority a slow torture of disease and disintegration.
Russell–Einstein Manifesto (1955)
Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that some spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, one that is vastly superior to that of man.