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I believe in Spinoza's God, Who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God Who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, telegram response to New York rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein, Apr. 24, 1929
I am by heritage a Jew, by citizenship a Swiss, and by makeup a human being, and only a human being, without any special attachment to any state or national entity whatsoever.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, letter to Alfred Kneser, Jun. 7, 1918
For any one who is pervaded with the sense of causal law in all that happens, who accepts in real earnest the assumption of causality, the idea of a Being who interferes with the sequence of events in the world is absolutely impossible. Neither the religion of fear nor the social-moral religion can have any hold on him.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, attributed, Has Science Discovered God?: A Symposium of Modern Scientific Opinion (Cotton, 1931)
Today, in twelve countries, young men are resisting conscription and refusing military service. They are the pioneers of a warless world.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, letter to the international conference of war resisters in Lyons, France, quoted in The Christian Century, 1931
A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, "My Future Plans," The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein
The really good music, whether of the East or of the West, cannot be analyzed.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, interview with Rabindranath Tagore, Apr. 14, 1930
Nature hides her secret because of her essential loftiness, but not by means of ruse.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, remark made during Einstein's visit to Princeton University, May 1921
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, Cosmic Religion: With Other Opinions and Aphorisms
It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, attributed, Albert Einstein: The Human Side
Our world faces a crisis as yet unperceived by those possessing power to make great decisions for good or evil. The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, New York Times, May 25, 1946
Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in producing an atomic bomb, I would not have lifted a finger.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, Newsweek Magazine, Mar. 10, 1947
The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, Gutkind Letter, Jan. 3, 1954
Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character; it becomes lack of power to act with courage proportionate to danger. All this must lead to the destruction of our intellectual life unless the danger summons up strong personalities able to fill the lukewarm and discouraged with new strength and resolution.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, speech in honor of Thomas Mann, Jan. 1939
A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish it but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, letter to Robert Marcus, a distraught father who asked Einstein for some comforting words after the death of his young son, Feb. 12, 1950
I could say analogously that tolerance is the affable appreciation of qualities, views, and actions of other individuals which are foreign to one's own habits, beliefs, and tastes. Thus being tolerant does not mean being indifferent towards the actions and feelings of others. Understanding and empathy must also be present.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, attributed, Albert Einstein: The Human Side
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.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, The World As I See It
If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, attributed, Engines That Move Markets
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, attributed, Albert Einstein: The Human Side
The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil. We see before us a huge community of producers the members of which are unceasingly striving to deprive each other of the fruits of their collective labour... I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, "Why Socialism?", Monthly Review, May 1949
It gives me great pleasure indeed to see the stubbornness of an incorrigible nonconformist warmly acclaimed.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, Ideas and Opinions
Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, Mein Weltbild
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 sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, Mein Weltbild
Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, The World As I See It
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, attributed, Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing
Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are incapable of forming such opinions.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, essay to Leo Baeck, 1953
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. 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 each day.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, "Old Man's Advice to Youth", Life Magazine, May 2, 1955
Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, The World As I See It
I think that only daring speculation can lead us further and not accumulation of facts.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, letter to Michele Besso, October 8, 1952
Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.
ALBERT EINSTEIN, Youth, Jun. 1932
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