24 July 2008

Einstein says

"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 ."

“Nothing that I can do will change the structure of the universe.

But maybe, by raising my voice, I can help in the greatest of all causes

-- goodwill among men and peace on earth.”

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

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

"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. ... I get most joy in life out of music."

"The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...

the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind.

If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."

"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"

"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.”

24 June 2008

Einstein says 2

“I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves - such an ethical basis I call more proper for a herd of swine.”

“The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.”

"A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of others ."

"I want to know God's thoughts,..... the rest are details.."

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

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."

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

"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."

"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."

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

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

24 May 2008

Einstein says 3

"A human being is part of the 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 nature in its

beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such

achievement is in itself a part of the liberation, and a foundation for inner

security"

"Man tries to make for himself in the fashion that suits him best a simplified and intelligible picture of the world;

he then tries to some extent to substitute this cosmos of his for the world of experience, and thus to overcome it.

This is what the painter, the poet, the speculative philosopher, and the natural scientists do, each in his own fashion.

Each makes this cosmos and its construction the pivot of his emotional life,

in order to find in this way peace and security which he can not find in the narrow whirlpool of personal experience."

"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."

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

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

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

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

"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."

“Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods."

“ The example of great and pure individuals is the only thing that can lead us to noble thoughts and deeds.”

"One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not.

This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination,

I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year."

"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."

24 April 2008

Einstein says 4

“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."

"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."

"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods."

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

"There are only two ways to live your life.

One is as though nothing is a miracle.

The other is as though everything is a miracle."

"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."

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

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

"A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of others."

24 March 2008

Einstein says 5

"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."

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

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

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

"The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it Intuition or what you will, the solution comes to you and you don't know how or why".

"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."

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

"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."

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

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

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

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