Everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler.

The important thing is not to stop questioning.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.

The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.

Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.

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

The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.

The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.

When asked what he considered to be the most powerful force in the universe Albert answered: “Compound interest!”

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

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

Technological progress is like an ax in the hands of a pathological criminal.

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.

If I would be a young man again and had to decide how to make my living, I would not try to become a scientist or scholar or teacher. I would rather choose to be a plumber or a peddler, in the hope to find that modest degree of independence still available under present circumstances.

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.

The grand aim of all science is to cover the greatest number of empirical facts by logical deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms.

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.

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.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Small is the number of them that see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics, I can assure you that mine are all greater.

Violence sometimes may have cleared away obstructions quickly, but it never has proved itself creative.

All of us who are concerned for peace and triumph of reason and justice must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert upon events in the political field.

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.

Concern for man himself and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors.

Something deeply hidden had to be behind things.

The only rational way of educating a child is to be an example – of what to avoid, if one can’t be the other sort.

Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute; sit on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour – that’s relativity!

I think and think for months, for years; 99 times the conclusion is false, but the hundredth time I am right.

Nationalism is an infantile disease, it is the measles of mankind.

Science without religion is lame,

Religion without science is blind.

No path leads from a knowledge of that which is to that which should be.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X + Y + Z
with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.

For the most part I do the thing which my own nature drives me to do. It is embarrassing to earn so much respect and love for it. Arrows of hate have been shot at me, too; but they never hit me, because somehow they belong to another world, with which I have no connection whatsoever.

God is subtle but He is not malicious.

God does not play dice with the universe.

Did God have any choice in creating the universe?

If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.

The War World after the next one will be fought with rocks.

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

Insanity: Expecting different results from the same set of behaviors

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

It is in fact nothing short of a miracle that modern methods of instruction have not strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.

Concern for man himself and his fate must form the chief interest for all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.

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

When asked, in 1936, to write something to be placed in a time capsule, Albert wrote the following:
Dear Posterity,
If you have not become more just, more peaceful, and generally more rational than we are (or were) – why then, the Devil take you.
Having, with all respect, given utterance to this pious wish, I am (or was)
Yours

It’s high time the ideal of success should be replaced with the ideal of service.

The problems we face today cannot be solved with the same level of thinking that created them.

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

The life of the individual only has meaning insofar as it aids in making the life of every living thing nobler and more beautiful. Life is sacred, that is to say, it is the supreme value to which all other values are subordinate.

Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible concatenations, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in point of fact, religious.

My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior Spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds. The deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning Power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.

The deeper one penetrates into nature’s secrets, the greater becomes one’s respect for God.

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

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.