All of one’s contemporaries and aging friends are living in a delicate balance, and one feels that one’s own consciousness is no longer as brightly lit as it once was. But then, twilight with its more subdued colors has its charms as well.

A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?

On how he sees himself: A person with no roots anywhere…a stranger everywhere.

When I was young, all I wanted and expected from life was to sit quietly in some corner doing my work without the public paying attention to me.

It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely.

I lived in solitude in the country and noticed how the monotony of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.

There is far too great a disproportion between what one is and what others think one is, or at least what they say they think one is. But one has to take it all with good humor.

Of course, understanding of our fellow-beings is important. But this understanding becomes fruitful only when it is sustained by sympathetic feeling in joy and in sorrow. The cultivation of this most important spring of moral action is that which is left of religion when it has been purified of the elements of superstition.

Desire for approval and recognition is a healthy motive, but the desire to be acknowledged as better, stronger or more intelligent than a fellow being or fellow scholar easily leads to an excessively egoistic psychological adjustment.

Many times a day I realize how much my outer and inner life is based upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how much I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.

It is an irony of fate that I myself have been the recipient of excessive admiration and reverence from my fellow-beings, through no fault or merit of my own.

I am content in my later years. I have kept my good humor and take neither myself nor the next person seriously.

A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually 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.

A man’s value to the community depends primarily on how far his feelings, thoughts, and actions are directed towards promoting the good of his fellows.

Each of us visits this Earth involuntarily, and without an invitation. For me, it is enough to wonder at the secrets.

Be creative, but make sure that what you create is not a curse for mankind.

On education: 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; it is that education which in the main is founded upon the desire for successful activity and acknowledgment.

Studying, and striving for truth and beauty in general, is a sphere in which we are allowed to be children throughout life.

Today also there is an urge toward social progress, toward tolerance and freedom of thought, toward a larger political unity… But the students at our universities have ceased as completely as their teachers to embody the hopes and ideals of the people.

The most valuable thing a teacher can impart to children is not knowledge and understanding per se but a longing for knowledge and understanding, and an appreciation for intellectual values, whether they be artistic, scientific, or moral.

I very rarely think in words at all. A thought comes, and I may try to express it in words afterwards.

Failure is success in progress. 

Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them. 

The value of achievement lies in the achieving.

Weak people revenge. Strong people forgive. Intelligent people ignore.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius, and a lot of courage, to move in the opposite direction.

The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.

Don’t listen to the person who has the answers; listen to the person who has the questions.

The only source of knowledge is experience.

Creativity is intelligence having fun.

The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible.

No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.

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

You never fail until you stop trying.

Where there’s a will there’s a way.

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

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.

A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem.

Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.

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

I soon learned to scent out what was able to lead to fundamentals and to turn aside from everything else, from the multitude of things that clutter up the mind.

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.

What is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right.

I am a real lone wolf who has never wholeheartedly belonged to the State, to my country, my circle of friends and not even to my family but who, despite all these bonds, has constantly experienced a feeling of strangeness and the need for solitude.

Be a loner. That gives you time to wonder, to search for the truth. Have holy curiosity. Make your life worth living.

Although I have a regular work schedule, I take time to go for long walks on the beach so that I can listen to what is going on inside my head. If my work isn’t going well, I lie down in the middle of a workday and gaze at the ceiling while I listen and visualize what goes on in my imagination.

I am a horse for single harness, not cut out for tandem or team work. I have never belonged wholeheartedly to country or state, to my circle of friends, or even to my own family. These ties have always been accompanied by a vague aloofness, and the wish to withdraw into myself increases with the years.

Why is it that nobody understands me, yet everybody likes me?

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