I know not with what weapons
World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
I want to know God's thoughts... all
the rest are details
It's not that I'm so smart, it's just
that I stay with problems longer.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds
Science without religion is lame,
religion without science is blind.
God does not play dice with the
universe.
Common sense is the collection of
prejudices acquired by age 18.
Nothing will benefit human health and
increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a
vegetarian diet
Only two things are infinite, the
universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Problems cannot be solved at the same
level of awareness that created them.
Few are those who see with their own
eyes and feel with their own hearts.
Peace cannot be achieved through
violence, it can only be attained through understanding.
When the solution is simple, God is answering.
Where the world ceases to be the scene of our personal hopes and wishes, where we face it as free beings admiring,
asking and observing, there we enter the realm of Art and Science
Watch the stars, and from them learn.
To the Master's honour all must turn, each in its track, without a sound, forever tracing Newton's
ground.
Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler.
Put your hand on a hot stove for a
minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute,
THAT's relativity.
Gravitation can not be held
responsible for people falling in love
The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained
liberation from the self.
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of
the Gods.
Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift.
We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
Without deep reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.
A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labours of other.
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious; it is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle
of true art and true science.
Only a life lived for others is a life worth while.
I have no special gift. I am only
passionately curious.
Small is the number of them that see
with their own eyes and feel with their own heart.
It is the supreme art of the teacher
to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledgeable.
Teaching should be such that what is
offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty.
Two things inspire me to awe -- the
starry heavens above and the moral universe within.
No problem can be solved from the same
consciousness that created it.
Great spirits have always encountered
violent opposition from mediocre minds.
Nothing will benefit human health or increase the chances for survival of life on earth as the evolution to a
vegetarian diet.
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. This disgrace to
civilisation should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless
brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how
despicable an ignoreable war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part
of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.
As far as the laws of mathematics
refer to reality, they are not certain; as far as they are certain, they do not
refer to reality.
Imagination is more important than
knowledge.
Sometimes one pays most for the things
one gets for nothing.
If we knew what it was we were doing,
it would not be called research, would it?
Common sense is the collection of
prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
Albert Einstein, when asked to
describe radio, replied: You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long
cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do
you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals
here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no
cat.
God doesn't play dice.
God may be subtle, but He isn't plain
mean.
If A equals success, then the formula
is _ A = _ X + _ Y + _ Z. _ X is work. _ Y is play. _ Z is keep your mouth shut
If I had only known, I would have been
a locksmith.
Man usually avoids attributing
cleverness to somebody else
-- unless it is an enemy.
The hardest thing in the world to
understand is the income tax
The secret to creativity is knowing
how to hide your sources.
If the facts don't fit the theory,
change the facts.
I never think of the future. It comes
soon enough
Only two things are infinite, the
universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Before God we are all equally wise -
and equally foolish.
The most incomprehensible thing about
the world is that it is at all comprehensible.
The release of atomic energy has not
created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving
an existing one.
You cannot simultaneously prevent and
prepare for war
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
Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrity's. The latter cannot understand it when a man
does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.
A man's ethical behaviour should be
based effectual on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear
of punishment and hope of reward after death.
What really interests me is whether
God had any choice in the creation of the world
If one studies too zealously, one
easily loses his pants.
If you are out to describe the truth,
leave elegance to the tailor.
Through the release of atomic energy,
our generation has brought into the world the most revolutionary force since
prehistoric man's discovery of fire. This basic force of the universe cannot be
fitted into the outmoded concept of narrow nationalisms. For there is no secret
and there is no defence; there is no possibility of control except through the
aroused understanding and insistence of the peoples of the world. We scientists
recognise our inescapable responsibility to carry to our fellow citizens an
understanding of atomic energy and its implication for society. In this lies our
only security and our only hope - we believe that an informed citizenry will act
for life and not for death.
The teaching of relativity
- Relativity teaches us the connection between the different descriptions of one and the same reality
The Formulation of Relativity
- I sometimes ask myself how it came about that I was the one to develop the theory of relativity
- The reason, I think, is that a normal adult never stops to think about problems of space and time.
- These are things which he has thought about as a child.
- But my intellectual development was retarded,as a result of which I began to wonder about space and time only when I had already grown
up
On the moon being there without looking at it...
- I think that a particle must have a separate reality independent of the measurements.
- That is an electron has spin, location and so forth even when it is not being measured.
- I like to think that the moon is there even if I am not looking at it.
Intelligence and the Ultimate &
Fundamental ends
- Intelligence makes clear to us the interrelationship of means and ends
- But mere thinking cannot give us a sense of the ultimate and fundamental
ends. But mere thinking cannot give us a sense of the ultimate and
fundamental ends.
- To make clear these fundamental ends and valuations and to set them fast
in the emotional life of the individual, seems to me precisely the most
important function which religion has to form in the social life of
man
The goals of Science and Religion, and
out Understanding of Life
- The more a man is imbued with the ordered regularity of all events the
firmer becomes his conviction that there is no room left by the side of this
ordered regularity for causes of a different nature.
- For him neither the rule of human nor the rule of divine will exist as
an independent cause of natural events
- To be sure, the doctrine of a personal God interfering with the natural
events could never be refuted, in the real sense, by science, for this
doctrine can always take refuge in those domains in which scientific
knowledge has not yet been able to set foot.
- For a doctrine which is able to maintain itself not in clear light but
only in the dark, will of necessity lose its effect on mankind, with
incalculable harm to human progress .
- If it is one of the goals of religions to liberate maknind as far as
possible from the bondage of egocentric cravings, desires, and fears,
scientific reasoning can aid religion in another sense.
- Although it is true that it is the goal of science to discover (the)
rules which permit the association and foretelling of facts, this is not its
only aim.
- It also seeks to reduce the connections discovered to the smallest
possible number of mutually independent conceptual elements.
- It is in this striving after the rational unification of the manifold
that it encounters its greatest successes, even though it is precisely this
attempt which causes it to run the greatest risk of falling a prey to
illusion.
- But whoever has undergone the intense experience of successful advances
made in this domain, is moved by the profound reverence for the rationality
made manifest in existence.
- By way of the understanding he achieves a far reaching emancipation from
the shackles of personal hopes and desires, and thereby attains that humble
attitude of mind toward the grandeur of reason, incarnate in existence, and
which, in its profoundest depths, is inaccessible to man.
- This attitude, however, appears to me to be religious in the highest
sense of the word.
- And so it seems to me that science not only purifies the religious
impulse of the dross of its anthropomorphism but also contributes to a
religious spiritualisation of our understanding of life.
The Mystic Emotion, Knowledge, and Religious Sentiment
- The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion
- Herein lies the germ of all art and all true science.
- Anyone to whom this feeling is alien, who is no longer capable of
wonderment and lives in a state of fear is a dead man.
- To know that what is impenatrable for us really exists and manifests
itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, whose gross forms
alone are intelligible to our poor faculties - this knowledge, this feeling
... that is the core of the true religious sentiment
- In this sense, and in this sense alone, I rank myself amoung profoundly
religious men
The Temple of Science, and the
Scientific Assembly...
- In the temple of science are many mansions, and various indeed are they
that dwell therein and the motives that have led them thither
- Many take to science out of a joyful sense of superior intellectual
power; science is their own special sport to which they look for vivid
experience and the satisfaction of ambition.
- Many others are to be found in the temple who have offered the products
of their brains on this altar for purely utilitarian purposes.
- Were an angel of the Lord to come and drive all the people belonging to
these two categories out of the temple, the assemblage would be seriously
depleted, but there would still be some men, of both present and past times,
left inside
The Cosmic Religious
Expericnce
- The cosmic religious experience is the strongest and noblest driving
force behind scientific research The cosmic religious experience is the
strongest and noblest driving force behind scientific research
- No one who does not appreciate the terrific exertions and above all, the
devotion without which pioneer creations in scientific thought cannot come
into being, can judge the strength of the feeling out of which alone such
work, turned away as it is from immediate practical life, can grow.
- What a deep faith in the rationality of the world and its structure and
what a longing to understand even the smallest glimpses of the reason
revealed in the world there must have been in Kepler and Newton ... What a
deep faith in the rationality of the world and its structure and what a
longing to understand even the smallest glimpses of the reason revealed in
the world there must have been in Kepler and Newton ...
Human Beings and their Circles of
Compassion
- A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited
in time and space.
- We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate
from the rest.
- A kind of optical delusion of consciousness.
- This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal
desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.
- Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our
circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature
in its beauty...
- We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to
survive.
The Student, Success, Service, and the
Task of Educators
- One should guard against inculcating a young man {or woman} with the
idea that success is the aim of life, for a successful man normally receives
from his peers an incomparibly greater portion than the services he has been
able to render them deserve.
- The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is
capable of receiving.
- The most important motive for study at school, at the university, and in
life is the pleasure of working and thereby obtaining results which will
serve the community.
- The most important task for our educators is to awaken and encourage
these psychological forces in a young man {or woman}.
- Such a basis alone can lead to the joy of possessing one of the most
precious assets in the world - knowledge or artistic skill.
Imagination of Knowledge
- 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.
The Tree of Life
- All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.
- All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting
it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual
towards freedom.
Two Goals of Freedom
- Those instrumental goods which should serve to maintain the life and
health of all human beings should be produced by the least possible labour
of all. The satisfaction of physical needs is indeed the indispensable
precondition of a satisfactory existence, but in itself is not enough. In
order to be content men must also have the possibility of developing their
intellectual and artistic powers to whatever extent accord with their
personal characteristics and abilities.
Spiritual Development of
Individuals
- If the possibility of the spiritual development of all individuals is to
be secured, a second kind of outward freedom is necessary.
- The development of science and of the creative activities of the spirit
in general requires still another kind of freedom, which may be
characterised as inward freedom.
- It is this freedom of the spirit which consists in the interdependence
of thought from the restrictions of authoritarian and social prejudices as
well as from unphilosophical routinizing and habit in general. It is this
freedom of the spirit which consists in the interdependence of thought from
the restrictions of authoritarian and social prejudices as well as from
unphilosophical routinizing and habit in general.
- This inward freedom is an infrequent gift of nature and a worthy object
for the individual.
Morals and Emotions
- We all know, from what we experience with and within ourselves, that our
conscious acts spring from our desires and our fears.
- Intuition tells us that that is true also of our fellows and of the
higher animals.
- We all try to escape pain and death, while we seek what is pleasant.
- We are all ruled in what we do by impulses; and these impulses are so
organised that our actions in general serve for our self-preservation and
that of the race.
- Hunger, love, pain, fear are some of those inner forces which rule the
individual's instinct for self-preservation.
- At the same time, as social beings, we are moved in the relations with
our fellow beings by such feelings as sympathy, pride, hate, need for power,
pity, and so on.
- All these primary impulses, not easily described in words, are the
springs of man's actions.
- All such action would cease if those powerful elemental forces were to
cease stirring within us.
- Though our conduct seems so very different from that of the higher
animals, the primary instincts are much aloke in them and in us.
- The most evident difference springs from the important part which is
played in man by a relatively strong power of imagination and by the
capacity to think, aided as it is by language and other symbolical devices.
- Thought is the organising factor in man, intersected between the causal
primary instincts and the resulting actions.
- In that way imagination and intelligence enter into our existence in the
part of servants of the primary instincts.
- But their intervention makes our acts to serve ever less merely the
immediate claims of our instincts.
The Difficulty of the Sages
- The real difficulty, the difficulty which has baffled the sages of all
times, is rather this: how can we make our teaching so potent in the
motional life of man, that its influence should withstand the pressure of
the elemental psychic forces in the individual?
Belief and Knowledge
- During the last century, and part of the one before, it was widely held
that there was an unreconcilable conflict between knowledge and belief.
- The opinion prevailed among advanced minds that it was time that belief
should be replaced increasingly by knowledge; belief that did not itself
rest on knowledge was superstition, and as such had to be opposed.
- According to this conception, the sole function of education was to open
the way to thinking and knowing, and the school, as the outstanding organ
for the people's education, must serve that end exclusively.
- "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
The Nature and Authority of Fundamental Ends
- Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what
should be.
- If one asks the whence derives the authority of fundamental ends, since
they cannot be stated and justified merely by reason, one can only answer:
they exist in a healthy society as powerful traditions, which act upon the
conduct and aspirations and judgements of the individuals; they are there,
that is, as something living, without its being necessary to find
justification for their existence.
- They come into being not through demonstration but through revelation,
through the medium of powerful personalities.
- One must not attempt to justify them, but rather to sense their nature
simply and clearly. One must not attempt to justify them, but rather to
sense their nature simply and clearly.
The Christian Religion and the Human
Goal
- The highest principles for our aspirations and judgements are given to
us in the Jewish-Christian religious tradition.
- It is a very high goal which, with our weak powers, we can reach only
very inadequately, but which gives a sure foundation to our aspirations and
valuations.
- If one were to take that goal out of out of its religious form and look
merely at its purely human side, one might state it perhaps thus: free and
responsible development of the individual, so that he may place his powers
freely and gladly in the service of all mankind.
- It is only to the individual that a soul is given. it is only to the
individual that a soul is given.
- And the high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule,
or to impose himself in any other way.
Definition of Science
- Science is the century-old endeavour to bring together by means of
systematic thought the perceptible phenomena of this world into as
thorough-going an association as possible.
- To put it boldly, it is the attempt at a posterior reconstruction of
existence by the process of conceptualisation.
- Science can only ascertain what is, but not what should
be, and outside of its domain value judgements of all kinds remain
necessary.
Weather Prediction
- When the number of factors coming into play in a phenomenological
complex is too large scientific method in most cases fails.
- One need only think of the weather, in which case the prediction even
for a few days ahead is impossible.
- Nevertheless, no one doubts that we are confronted with a causal
connection whose causal components are in the main known to us.
- Occurrences in this domain are beyond the reach of exact prediction
because of the variety of factors in operation, not because of any lack of
order in nature.
Living Things
- We have penetrated far less deeply into the regularities obtaining
within the realm of living things, but deeply enough nevertheless to sense
at least the rule of fixed necessity ..... what is still lacking here is a
grasp of the connections of profound generality, but not a knowledge of
order itself.
The First Step in the Setting of a
'Real External World'
- I believe that the first step in the setting of a 'real external world'
is the formation of the concept of bodily objects and of bodily objects of
various kinds.
- Out of the multitude of our sense experiences we take, mentally and
arbitrarily, certain repeatedly occurring complexes of sense impression
(partly in conjunction with sense impressions which are interpreted as signs
for sense experiences of others), and we attribute to them a meaning the
meaning of the bodily object.
- Considered logically this concept is not identical with the totality of
sense impressions referred to; but it is an arbitrary creation of the human
(or animal) mind.
- On the other hand, the concept owes its meaning and its justification
exclusively to the totality of the sense impressions which we associate with
it.
Experience: Personal and
Cosmic
- Man tries to make for himself in the fashion that suits him best a
simplified and intelligible picture of the world; he then tries to some
extent to substitute this cosmos of his for the world of experience, and
thus to overcome it.
- This is what the painter, the poet, the speculative philosopher, and the
natural scientists do, each in his own fashion.
- Each makes this cosmos and its construction the pivot of his emotional
life, in order to find in this way peace and security which he can not find
in the narrow whirlpool of personal experience.
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