Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.

Each of us has to do his little bit toward transforming this spirit of the times.

Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts.

I, an old man, greet you Japanese schoolchildren from afar and hope that your generation may some day put mine to shame.

The destiny of civilized humanity depends more than ever on the moral forces it is capable of generating.

Measured objectively, what a man can wrest from Truth by passionate striving is utterly infinitesimal. But the striving frees us from the bonds of the self and makes us comrades of those who are the best and the greatest.

A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels.

As for the search for truth, I know from my own painful searching, with its many blind alleys, how hard it is to take a reliable step, be it ever so small, towards the understanding of that which is truly important.

A theory is the more impressive the greater the simplicity of its premises, the more different kinds of things it relates, and the more extended its area of applicability.

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.

A person who is religiously enlightened appears to me to be one who has, to the best of his ability, liberated himself from the fetters of his selfish desires and is preoccupied with thoughts, feelings, and aspirations to which he clings because of their superpersonal value.

On receiving Lord & Taylor Award: It gives me great pleasure, indeed, to see the stubbornness of an incorrigible nonconformist warmly acclaimed.

The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the State but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and full in feeling.

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

The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life.

The really good music, whether of the East or of the West, cannot be analyzed.

If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.

Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible.

Man usually avoids attributing cleverness to somebody else, unless it is an enemy.

Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.

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

At our age, the devil doesn’t give you much time off!

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure.

No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.

A new idea comes suddenly and in a rather intuitive way, but intuition is nothing but the outcome of earlier intellectual experience.

The foundation of morality should not be made dependent on myth nor tied to any authority lest doubt about the myth or about the legitimacy of the authority imperil the foundation of sound judgment and action.

The foundation of morality should not be made dependent on myth nor tied to any authority lest doubt about the myth or about the legitimacy of the authority imperil the foundation of sound judgment and action.

The eternal mystery of the universe is its comprehensibility.

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.

Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.

I am neither a German citizen, nor do I believe in anything that can be described as a ‘Jewish faith.’ But I am a Jew and glad to belong to the Jewish people, though I do not regard it in any way as chosen.

My passionate interest in social justice and social responsibility has always stood in curious contrast to a marked lack of desire for direct association with men and women.

Solitude can be tolerated only up to a certain limit, you know.

There are two means of refuge from the misery of life – music and cats.

The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been before.

With fame I become more and more stupid, which of course is a very common phenomenon.

I simply enjoy giving more than receiving in every respect, to not take myself nor the doings of the masses seriously, am not ashamed of my weaknesses and vices, and naturally take things as they come with equanimity and humor. Many people are like this, and I really cannot understand why I have been made into a kind of idol.

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

What counts can’t always be counted; what can be counted doesn’t always count.

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

Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.

Love is a better teacher than duty.

The only source of knowledge is experience.

Any fool can know. The point is to understand.

The important thing is not to stop questioning.

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

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.

Try not to become a man of success, but a man of value. Look around at how people want to get more out of life than they put in. A man of value will give more than he receives. Be creative, but make sure that what you create is not a curse for mankind.