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

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious – the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.

The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with joy are goodness, beauty, and truth. 

Our task must be to free ourselves… by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and it’s beauty.

One must take what nature gives as one finds it.

Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift.

How wretchedly inadequate is the theoretical physicist as he stands before Nature, and before his students.

My scientific work is motivated by an irresistible longing to understand the secrets of nature and by no other feelings. My love for justice and the striving to contribute towards the improvement of human conditions are quite independent from my scientific interests.

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

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

(On if his life was a success): Neither on my deathbed nor before will I ask myself such a question. Nature is not an engineer or a contractor, and I myself am a part of Nature.

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.

Numerous are the wares that nature produces by the dozen, but her choice products are few.

Space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind union of the two will preserve an independent reality.

A spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.

If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.

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.

What I see is a certain something, desolate and grey as infinity. I do not believe that the structure of the human brain is to be blamed for the fact that man cannot grasp infinity.

Make a lot of walks to get healthy and don’t read that much but save yourself some until you’re grown up.

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

A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest… a kind of optical delusion of his 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 this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

Any fool can know. The point is to understand.

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

Creativity is intelligence having fun.

I lived in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in maturity.

At any rate, I am convinced that He does not play dice.

I want to know God’s thoughts; the rest are details.

Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.

You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.

Information is not knowledge.

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.

If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.

I never think of the future – it comes soon enough.

Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

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

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

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

I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.

If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.

God gave me the stubbornness of a mule and a fairly keen scent.

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.

You can’t blame gravity for falling in love.

Love brings much happiness, much more than pining brings pain.

I firmly believe that love [of a subject or hobby] is a better teacher than a sense of duty – at least for me.

Women marry men hoping they will change. Men marry women hoping they will not. So each is inevitably disappointed.

When you trip over love, it is easy to get up. But when you fall in love, it is impossible to stand again.

Is it not a lack of real affection that scares me away again and again from marriage. Is it a fear of the comfortable life, or nice furniture, of dishonor that I burden myself with, or even the fear of becoming a contented bourgeois?

Possessing you makes me proud & your love makes me happy. I will be doubly happy when I can press you to my heart again and see your loving eyes.