Everything that men do or think concerns the satisfaction of the needs they feel or the escape from pain.

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Wording in Ideas and Opinions: Everything that the human race has done and thought is concerned with the satisfaction of deeply felt needs and the assuagement of pain. One has to keep this constantly in mind if one wishes to understand spiritual movements and their development. Feeling and longing are the motive force behind all human endeavor and human creation, in however exalted a guise the latter may present themselves to us.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Albert Einstein (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.