Albert Einstein is the world’s most famous physicist. He remained in history for his theories on space and gravity. Also, his work on the photoelectric effect won him a Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. Many of us heard about Einstein and his work in physics. However, not many know that he was also the inspiration for other physicists and people all over the world. And in this article, we’ll show you 50 most inspiring quotes by Albert Einstein.
Albert Einstein – The World’s Most Famous Physicist And More Than That
Born on March 14th, 1879, in Ulm, Germany, Albert Einstein belonged to a family of middle-class Jews. As Einstein said later in his life, two significant events marked his childhood. At the age of 5, the young Einstein found a compass that fascinated him. Later on, at 12, he bumped into a geometry book. Both these happenings represented the emergence of Albert Einstein in the world of exact sciences.
But, Albert Einstein has been, at that time, the perfect definition of duality between science and religion. He became religious at 12 years of age. Even though the science books that he started to read contradicted his religious views, Albert Einstein has always maintained a fascination with invisible forces. Although, he changed the repertoire from God to gravity and other forces in the Universe.
Albert Einstein’s life was not challenge-free. He attracted many critics from his professors for his theories on the stiffness of the educational system that did not allow students to be creative. But that didn’t stop Einstein from individually studying.
In 1905, Einstein elaborated on the theory of general relativity. Surprisingly, at first, the scientific community of those times refused to accept Einstein’s papers. Luckily for him, Max Planck, the most famous physicists of those times and the father of the quantum theory, offered his attention to Einstein’s theories. In 1921, Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize for Physics for his work in the field of the photoelectric effect.
Almost all people know Einstein as the most prolific physicist in the world, as his theories are fundamental even for nowadays physics and astrophysics. But, not many know that Einstein was also famous for his words that remained in history and inspired many people over time. Einstein was more than a scientist. Einstein is also renowned for his “philosophical quotes” that motivated, amused – in the best sense of the term- and inspired people all over the world.
List of the Most Inspiring Quotes by Albert Einstein
If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
In answer to the question, “Do you trust more to your imagination than to your knowledge?” From an interview with G. S. Viereck, “What Life Means to Einstein,” Saturday Evening Post, October 26, 1929
I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.
I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.
People like you and I, though mortal of course, like everyone else, do not grow old no matter how long we live. What I mean is that we never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.
People are like bicycles. They can keep their balance only as long as they keep moving.
To son Eduard, February 5, 1930.
If A is success in life, then A = x+ y+ z. Work is x, play is y, and z is keeping your mouth shut.
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Said to Samuel J. Woolf in Berlin, Summer 1929. Published in the New York Times, August 18, 1929. Einstein often spoke about keeping one’s mouth shut.
Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.
In answer to a question asked by the editors of Youth, a journal of Young Israel of Williamsburg, N.Y. Quoted in the New York Times, June 20, 1932.
Personal existence makes sense through the conviction of the objective value of one’s own strife and action. But if this conviction is not softened by humor, one becomes insufferable.
If there is no price to be paid, it is also not of value.
Failure and deprivation are the best educators and purifiers.
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.
A successful man is one who receives a great deal from his fellow-men, usually incomparably more than corresponds to his service to them. The value of a man, however, should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.
We have to do the best we are capable of. This is our sacred human responsibility.
Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.
The striving for truth and knowledge is one of the highest of man’s qualities—though often the pride is most loudly voiced by those who strive the least.
He who is untrue to his own cause cannot command the respect of others.
Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society.
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 toward freedom.
Fear or stupidity has always been the basis of most human actions.
Life doesn’t make things easy for anyone. But it is lucky when we are able to emerge from our own uncomfortable confines to some extent and focus on objective matters that are beyond the wretchedness of life.
One should not pursue goals that are easily achieved. One must develop an instinct for what one can just barely achieve through one’s greatest efforts.
This quote from Albert Einstein is what he said to former student Walter Dällenbach, May 31, 1915, while giving him some advice on an electrical engineering project.
A machine disregards human feelings. . . . Machines make our life impersonal, stunt certain qualities in us, and create an impersonal environment.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and 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. This insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong in the ranks of devoutly religious men.
An hour sitting with a pretty girl on a park bench passes like a minute, but a minute sitting on a hot stove seems like an hour.
Einstein’s explanation of relativity that he gave to his secretary, Helen Dukas, to relay to reporters and other laypersons.
The value of achievement lies in the achieving.
Nothing truly valuable arises from ambition or from a mere sense of duty; it stems rather from love and devotion toward men and toward objective things.
The love of living creatures is for me the finest and best trait of mankind.
I believe that whatever we do or live for has its causality. It is good, however, that we do not know what it is.
Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries to comprehend only a little of this mystery every day.
It is not so important where one settles down. The best thing is to follow your instincts without too much reflection.
Valuable achievement can sprout from human society only when it is sufficiently loosened to make possible the free development of an individual’s abilities.
It is not possible to imagine a forest made up only of vines. It needs trees that are able to stand by virtue of their own strength.
All great achievements of science must start from intuitive knowledge, namely, in axioms, from which deductions are then made. . . . Intuition is the necessary condition for the discovery of such axioms.
I believe in intuitions and inspirations. . . . I sometimes feel that I am right. I do not know that I am.
“Invention is not the product of logical thought, even though the final product is tied to a logical structure.”
Knowledge exists in two forms—lifeless, stored in books, and alive in the consciousness of men. The second form of existence is after all the essential one; the first, indispensable as it may be, occupies only an inferior position.
Love brings much happiness, much more so than pining for someone brings pain.
Where there is love, there is no imposition.
Human beings can attain a worthy and harmonious life only if they are able to rid themselves, within the limits of human nature, of striving to fulfill wishes of the material kind. The goal is to raise the spiritual values of society.
Einstein quotes on miracles:
I admit that thoughts influence the body.
The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.
The most beautiful gift of nature is that it gives one pleasure to look around and try to comprehend what we see.
Try to become not a man of success, but try rather to become a man of value.
The effort to strive for truth has to precede all other efforts.
The search for truth and knowledge is one of the finest attributes of man—though often it is most loudly voiced by those who strive for it the least.
Truth is what stands the test of experience.
Whoever is careless with truth in small matters cannot be trusted in important affairs.
Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.
Work is the only thing that gives substance to life.
All quotes mentioned above are confirmed genuine quotes of Albert Einstein, by the book The Ultimate Quotable Einstein by Alice Calaprice and other sources.
