Quotes from Albert Einstein

Is it not a terrible thing to be forced by society to do things which all of us as individuals regard as abominable crimes?

As an elderly man, I have remained estranged from the society here.

The restriction of knowledge to an elite group destroys the spirit of the society and leads to its intellectual impoverishment.

The health of society thus depends quite as much on the independence of the individuals composing it as on their close political cohesion.

the real purpose of socialism is precisely to overcome and advance beyond the predatory phase of human development

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social enviroment. Most people are incapable of forming such opin

A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.

God did not create evil. Just as darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of God.

Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.

What a sad era when it is easier to smash an atom than a prejudice.

If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.

A human being is part of a whole called by us the universe.

Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.

A ship is always safe at the shore - but that is NOT what it is built for.

Learning is experience. Everything else is just information.

I'd rather be an optimist and a fool than a pessimist and right.

What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the World.

Men should continue to fight, but they should fight for things worth while, not for imaginary geographical lines, racial prejudices and private greed draped in the color's of patriotism.

Our separation from each other is an optical illusion.

The main task of the spirit is to free man from his ego.

How I wish that somewhere there existed an island for those who are wise and of good will.

Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas. ... [By seeking] logical beauty spiritual formulas are discovered necessary for the deeper penetration into the laws of nature.

The only sure way to avoid making mistakes is to have no new ideas.

If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture let us be more ashamed of shabby ideas and shoddy philosophies.