Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. (E = MC²)

The devil has put a penalty on all things we enjoy in life. Either we suffer in health or we suffer in soul or we get fat.

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.

The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead.

Without deep reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.

Only a life lived for others is a life worth while.

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.

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.

When a blind beetle crawls over the surface of the globe, he doesn't realize that the track he has covered is curved. I was lucky enough to have spotted it.

I have no particular talent. I am merely inquisitive.

It's not that I'm so smart , it's just that I stay with problems longer.

If I had my life to live over again, I'd be a plumber.

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.

My life is a simple thing that would interest no one. It is a known fact that I was born and that is all that is necessary.

As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.

I cannot believe that God would choose to play dice with the universe.

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.

Scientific research is based on the idea that everything that takes place is determined by laws of nature, and therefore this holds for the action of people. For this reason, a research scientist will hardly be inclined to believe that events could be influenced by a prayer, i.e. by a wish addressed to a Supernatural Being.

When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.

The only source of knowledge is experience

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.

We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. 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 every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.

Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

Two things inspire me to awe -- the starry heavens above and the moral universe within.

It is a magnificent feeling to recognize the unity of complex phenomena which appear to be things quite apart from the direct visible truth.

Watch the stars, and from them learn. To the Master's honor all must turn, each in its track, without a sound, forever tracing Newton's ground.

The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.

What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of "humility." This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism.

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.

Understanding of our fellow human beings...becomes fruitful only when it is sustained by sympathetic feelings in joy and sorrow.

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.

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.

A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; 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.

It is only to the individual that a soul is given.

In order to be an immaculate member of a flock of sheep, one must above all be a sheep oneself.

The minority, the ruling class at present, has the schools and press, usually the Church as well, under its thumb. This enables it to organize and sway the emotions of the masses, and make its tool of them.

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

I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it.

The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men. It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.

Since I do not foresee that atomic energy is to be a great boon for a long time, I have to say that for the present it is a menace. Perhaps it is well that it should be. It may intimidate the human race into bringing order into it's international affairs, which without the pressure of fear, it would not do.

Unless Americans come to realize that they are not stronger in the world because they have the bomb but weaker because of their vulnerability to atomic attack, they are not likely to conduct their policy at Lake Success [the United Nations] or in their relations with Russia in a spirit that furthers the arrival at an understanding.

The discovery of nuclear chain reactions need not bring about the destruction of mankind any more than did the discovery of matches. We only must do everything in our power to safeguard against its abuse. Only a supranational organization, equipped with a sufficiently strong executive power, can protect us.

Never regard study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the spirit for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which your later work belongs.

Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty.

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge

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?

The point is to develop the childlike inclination for play and the childlike desire for recognition and to guide the child over to important fields for society. Such a school demands from the teacher that he be a kind of artist in his province.

To me the worst thing seems to be a school principally to work with methods of fear, force and artificial authority. Such treatment destroys the sound sentiments, the sincerity and the self-confidence of pupils and produces a subservient subject.

One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community.

Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler.

Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age 18.

Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.

Strange is our situation here upon earth.

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.

An empty stomach is not a good political advisor.

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.

I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.

Force always attracts men of low morality, and I believe it to be an invariable rule that tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels.

If A equals success, then the formula is: A=X+Y+Z. X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut.

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.

Perfection of means and confusion of ends seem to characterize our age.

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.

The faster you go, the shorter you are.

Nationalism is an infantile sickness. It is the measles of the human race.

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.

If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world.

The wireless telegraph is not difficult to understand. The ordinary telegraph is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New York, and it meows in Los Angeles. The wireless is the same, only without the cat.

Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves.

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.

Perfections of mean and confusion of goals seem -in my opinion- to characterize our age.

Politics is a pendulum whose swings between anarchy and tyranny are fueled by perpetually rejuvenated illusions.

All our lauded technological progress -- our very civilization - is like the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal.

Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.

It is appallingly obvious that our technology exceeds our humanity.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

Gravitation can not be held responsible for people falling in love.