Albert Einstein is a name that resonates with genius. He’s also one of the most recognizable figures in the world.
Einstein was born in Germany in 1879, and his intellectual ability was apparent from an early age. His talents were encouraged, and he enrolled at the Zurich Polytechnic School, where he studied science and mathematics. In 1905, he published 4 important papers on theoretical physics that laid the foundation for quantum mechanics.
He would win the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on what became known as the photoelectric effect, which explains how electrons are emitted from metal when they absorb light energy.
Here are 143 quotes by Albert Einstein that will change your life and mindset
“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
“I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.”
“Genius is 1% talent and 99% hard work…”
“I must be willing to give up what I am in order to become what I will be.”
“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
“There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
“I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation and is but a reflection of human frailty.”
“Once you stop learning, you start dying.”
“What is right is not always popular, and what is popular is not always right.”
“Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.”
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”
“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”
“If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.”
“I believe in intuitions and inspirations…I sometimes FEEL that I am right. I do not KNOW that I am.”
“The only way to escape the corruptible effect of praise is to go on working.”
“What is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right.”
“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.”
“A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.”
“Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than the one with all the facts.”
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
“Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.”
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”
“Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible.”
“The best way to cheer yourself is to cheer somebody else up.”
“A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.”
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence.”
“Nothing happens until something moves.”
“Logic will get you from A to B. imagination will take you everywhere.”
“You have to learn the rules of the game, and then play better than anyone else.”
“Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.”
“The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there’s no risk of accident for someone who’s dead.”
“I am thankful for all of those who said NO to me. Its because of them I’m doing it myself.”
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”
“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”
“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects.”
“Stay away from negative people, they have a problem for every solution.”
“Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.”
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.”
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
“If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.”
“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”
“A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?”
“I would teach peace rather than war. I would inculcate love rather than hate.”
“I believe in intuitions and inspirations. I sometimes feel that I am right. I do not know that I am.”
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
“Without deep reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.”
“Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.”
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
“The only source of knowledge is experience.”
“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.”
“To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.”
“Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hopes of reward after death.”
“The great moral teachers of humanity were, in a way, artistic geniuses in the art of living.”
“All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.”
“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
“Force always attracts men of low morality.”
“There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there.”
“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”
“Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”
“A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.”
“A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.”
“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious.”
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”
“We dance for laughter, we dance for tears, we dance for madness, we dance for fears, we dance for hopes, we dance for screams, we are the dancers, we create the dreams.”
“I believe in standardizing automobiles. I do not believe in standardizing human beings.”
“It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry.”
“Weak people revenge. Strong people forgive. Intelligent people ignore.”
“A ship is always safe at shore but that is not what it’s built for.”
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”
“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.”
“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”
“Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.”
“You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I’ve only ever had one.”
“Common sense is nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down in the mind before you reach eighteen.”
“A human being is part of a whole called by us “Universe.”
“A ship is always safe at the shore – but that is NOT what it is built for.”
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.”
“The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
“Education is not the learning of facts, it’s rather the training of the mind to think.”
“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.”
“A true genius admits that he/she knows nothing.”
“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”
“The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.”
“When the solution is simple, God is answering.”
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.
“Before God we are all equally wise – and equally foolish.”
“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”
“We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.”
“The only real valuable thing is intuition.”
“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”
“Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”
“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.”
“Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.”
“If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.”
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”
“Truth is what stands the test of experience.”
“A question that sometimes drives me hazy — am I or are the others crazy?”
“The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it.”
“Creativity is intelligence having fun.”
“I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.”
“Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.”
“Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.”
“I am by heritage a Jew, by citizenship a Swiss, and by makeup a human being, and only a human being, without any special attachment to any state or national entity whatsoever.”
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
“Two things are infinite: The universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the universe.”
“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination.”
“Peace cannot be kept by force: It can only be achieved by understanding.”
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
“Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds.”
“No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.”
If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
“Life is liking riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
“Be a loner. That gives you time to wonder, to search for the truth. Have holy curiosity. Make your life worth living.”
“I love to travel, but I hate to arrive.”
“All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.”
“Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today’s events.”
“Although I am a typical loner in daily life, my consciousness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice has preserved me from feeling isolated.”
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
“The years of anxious searching in the dark, with their intense longing, their alternations of confidence and exhaustion, and final emergence into light—only those who have experienced it can understand that.”
“Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.”
“Let us not forget that human knowledge and skills alone cannot lead humanity to a happy and dignified life.”
“He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.”
“Invention is not the product of logical thought, even though the final product is tied to a logical structure.”
“Science can flourish only in an atmosphere of free speech.”
“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.”
“God always takes the simplest way.”
“Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift.”
“I’d rather be an optimist and a fool than a pessimist and right.”
“Nothing truly valuable arises from ambition or from a mere sense of duty; it stems rather from love and devotion towards men and towards objective things.”
“Hail to the man who went through life always helping others, knowing no fear, and to whom aggressiveness and resentment are alien.”
“Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.”
