Albert Einstein Quotes

Albert Einstein said:

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.

In answer to a question asked by the editors of Youth, a journal of Young Israel of Williamsburg, N.Y.

We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.


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 mind.


The Lord God is subtle, but malicious he is not.

Originally said to Princeton University mathematics professor Oscar Veblen, May 1921

It is hard to sneak a look at God's cards. But that he would choose to play dice with the world ... is something that I cannot believe for a single moment.

Letter to Cornelius Lanczos, March 21, 1942

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

From "Science and Religion,: a written contribution to a symposium held in New York in 1941 on what contributions science, philosophy, and religion make to the cause of American democracy

All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.

The fairest beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and all science. He who does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle.

From "What I Believe," Forum and Century 84 (1930), pp. 193-194

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. [sometimes quoted as]

Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler.


I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

What Life Means to Einstein: An Interview by George Sylvester Viereck, for the October 26, 1929 issue of The Saturday Evening Post; reprinted in "On Science," in Cosmic Religion, 97.

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

New York Times, October 5, 1952

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


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

Quoted in Life magazine, May 2, 1955

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.

Originally in "What Life Means to Einstein," Saturday Evening Post, October 26, 1929; reprinted in "On Science," in Cosmic Religion, 97.