Quotations of Wisdom

Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience. [Q493]

The bigotry of the nonbeliever is for me nearly as funny as the bigotry of the believer. [Q18]

We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. [Q24]

Any fool can know. The point is to understand. [Q396]

Problems cannot be solved by the level of awareness that created them. [Q298]

A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be. [Q361]

Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism — how passionately I hate them! [Q67]

I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious. [Q169]

The health of society thus depends quite as much on the independence of the individuals composing it as on their close political cohesion. [Q305]

Intellectuals solve problems. Geniuses prevent them. [Q1956]

Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking. [Q2022]

As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it. [Q399]

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts. [Q372]

Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds. [Q21]

If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it? [Q387]

If I give you a pfennig, you will be one pfennig richer and I'll be one pfennig poorer. But if I give you an idea, you will have a new idea, but I shall still have it, too. [Q120]

Times such as these have always bred defeatism and despair. But there remain, nonetheless, some few among us who believe man has within him the capacity to meet and overcome even the greatest challenges of this time. If we want to avoid defeat, we must wish to know the truth and be courageous enough to act upon it. If we get to know the truth and have the courage, we need not despair. [Q1874]

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction. [Q482]

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. [Q25]

Imagination is more important than knowledge. [Q1273]

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind. [Q19]

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. [Q1367]

May the conscience and the common sense of the peoples be awakened, so that we may reach a new stage in the life of nations, where people will look back on war as an incomprehensible aberration of their forefathers! [Q583]

One thing I have learned in a long life: All our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike - and yet it is the most precious thing we have. [Q145]

Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid. Human beings are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination. [Q401]

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. [Q20]

It is a scale of proportions which makes the bad difficult and the good easy. [Q358]

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. [Q293]

A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it. [Q394]

Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding. [Q23]

Truth is what stands the test of experience. [Q300]

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. [Q22]

If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor. [Q121]

The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in the United States is closely connected with this. [Q311]

Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind. [Q552]

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts. [Q26]

Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity. [Q428]